Justice Corp: Gamma
by shenandoahok
Summary: A young clone of Superman is born, and must learn how to balance powers, humanity, and life.
1. Chapter 1

PAGE 12

This story actually picks up in the future and in an alternate universe after Bruce Wayne dies, and Terry continues to fight crime in the batman uniform. The storyline has elements of Batman Beyond and Justice League in it, but I added a new superhero named Jimmy (clone of superman) who has to learn how to cope with his superpowers. The Justice League is called the Justice Corp in this universe. I've read through this first chapter several times, and I think I've done a pretty good job at correcting the mistakes, but I'm only human. Enjoy!

Prologue

1982…

Clark sat at the coffee table, drinking coffee, and reading the local newspaper, and Lois sat on the other end with her head placed firmly in her hands. She winced in pain several times before Clark noticed the ugly scowl on her face. Their wedding picture was placed neatly above Clark's head with a smiling Lois and a clean shaven Clark in a black tuxedo. He grew out his beard after the marriage because it looked more dignified in his opinion, and Lois loved to play with it. His nicely trimmed beard gave him the appearance of a harder man, a man who didn't take any nonsense off of anybody, and Lois loved the stubble.

The smell of fresh coffee caught his attention and the glare from the television was visible in the background, but the sound was turned down to minimal levels, but Clark heard every word, every news report. The television had an image of Superman in a black uniform, black cape, and a white "S" on his chest, and the reporter said, "Cadmus wants a word with Superman."

Lois's eyes looked sleepy and weary because she tossed and turned in her sleep, but Clark slept without any problems. Small beads of sweat fell from Lois's forehead, and bounced off the coffee table, and Clark looked over at her as he read the newspaper, but didn't notice how sickly she looked. He knew Lois had her good days and her bad days, since she escaped the nuclear explosion that happened over Southern California, but the doctors said that it would take years for the repercussions of the exposure to radiation to take effect. She sighed, and then as soon as she tried to speak, Clark muttered. "I swept the house for bugs."

"Find any," she said as she lit up a cigarette, and took a deep drag as if it gave her some relief from the agonizing pain that shot down her back and leg. She looked at the end of the lit cigarette, and took another long drag, and then squinted in pain. Her coffee tasted bitter in spite of all the sugar she added, and she added a few more table spoons in a fail attempt to make it sweeter.

"Um, seven," he said, "Cadmus grade." He looked over at her as she continued to pour sugar into her coffee. "Got enough sugar, Lois?" Lois fell forward onto the table, and Clark ran to her side with a look of concern, felt her head, and then the back of her neck. "What's wrong?" Clark asked as he continued to rub her neck, and then gently tapped his right index finger of his left hand against his knee. "Your color's off slightly, and you're running a fever." It was obvious that Lois was going through some agonizing pain because of her scrunched face and the way she clinched her side. "You're in pain," Clark said as he grabbed the lit cigarette from her sickly fingers, and placed it in the ashtray.

"It's my side," she said, "Something's not right." Lois tried to stand to her feet, but stumbled into Clark's arms, and he used his x-ray vision to take a quick scan of her hurting side. He knew she hadn't been herself since the exposure to the radiation from the bomb, but he thought she was getting better. Her six month sabbatical from the Daily Planet seemed to be working at first, but then she started drinking wine all day and every day until she would pass out on the couch. Clark spent the majority of his time away on missions with the Justice Corp, and didn't notice how much wine she had consumed over the last few months. He had his world and she had hers, and the two hardly intersected.

"A tumor," he whispered to himself as he finished scanning her body. He flew her to the local hospital in a matter of seconds. It was nineteen eighty-two, and they had only been married seven months, but not without incidents or problems. After a few hours in the hospital, his stress levels were at its maximum level, and his hands shook with a nervous tick. He knew her tumor was cancerous because of the radiation exposure from the nuclear blast, but he didn't know if it was terminal. Deep down, inside his soul, he felt he should have done more to help his wife in her time of need, but the world needed him too. Thousands of people in the Southern California area had the same tumors form in their bodies as Lois, but they had more exposure than she had. She was only in the area for a split second before Superman used his super speed to move her away from the brunt of the contamination.

Amanda Waller walked through the double doors to the waiting area, and Clark had a look of surprise on his face to see a high level intelligence officer in the local hospital. Clark was standing next to a large potted plant and near a television that hung above his head. Two older woman that had sick relatives in the hospital were sitting on the other side of the waiting area smoking cigarettes. Amanda Waller had two armed soldiers on either side of her, and she directed them to stay behind, and then she walked over to Clark.

"Walk with me, Clark," Amanda ordered as she stood in front of him in her military uniform with all the decorations. He didn't trust her or anything that she had to offer. Everything about her came with a price, a hefty price, and that price was the soul. She was a young, African American woman with a chest full of medals, a black beret, and a weapon on her right side. She looked serious. Her face was almost expressionless when she spoke. She had a feminine appearance about her, although she looked like she worked out in the gym daily. She didn't have much hair on her head. It was cut as short as possible, but she kept a soft look about her face, a sort of Grace Jones look. "We need to discuss Superman."

"Superman?" Clark asked in a jovial manner. He half laughed, and said, "Why are you asking me about that guy?"

"Don't look baffled," she said in a firm voice. Walking in front of him, she placed her hand on his chest, and whispered, "We know he's you."

"What?" He asked with a geeky smile on his face.

"It's not easy escaping the cameras of Cadmus, especially since we've perfected the ability to travel between dimensions," she said, "There are other Earths, Clark. I met a Superman that wears a red and blue suit instead of a black and white suit like yours."'

"What do you…?"

She placed her right hand over Clark's mouth. "I even met a Superman that didn't fly or wear tights," she said, "He never really accepted his abilities the way you do."

"What do you want from me?" He asked in a strong and deep voice.

"Your DNA," she said, "Just a small sample."

"For what?" He asked.

"She's dying, Clark. Kidney cancer," she said, "Thousands are dying just like her. This form of cancer is relentless, and current medicine doesn't have the tech to fight it off."

His face became colorless, and he fell against the wall hard enough to make a loud thumping sound, and then he slid to the ground. With a slight tremble in his voice, he asked, "How long does she have?"

"That depends on you," she said, "The same radioactive fallout happened on three other Earths. They cured their people with their Superman's DNA."

"Me?"

"Yes. Your DNA is the key to unlocking the lock to the door of cancer…"

"No. Not now, not ever," he said with an angry tone. "No, no, no, NO!"

"She'll die unless we use your DNA to develop a cure," she said, "All other avenues for these types of illnesses have been exhausted. Think of humanity. You'll save a cat out of a tree, but you won't do the one thing to save mankind from this horrible disease."

"What about a transplant?" He asked.

"It's cancer, Clark. Besides, you don't want that. The tons of medications, the cost, it's enough to make you throw your hands in the air and give up. She wouldn't qualify anyways because the cancer is eating her like maggots attacking rotting flesh. Time is of the essences. She has days not weeks."

"What can you guarantee?"

"You have my word that we'll do whatever it takes to cure this illness," she said, "My word as a Colonel in the United States Military."

The next day Colonel Walker sat in front of the President in the Oval Office, and handed a brief over to him. On his desk, a picture of him shaking Superman's hand set proudly. The President had a shiny bald head with a small beard, mustache, and he wore a suit that gave him superpowers.

"So, you got Superman's okay?" President Luthor asked as he looked over the documents. "With his blood we can stop this cancer dead in its tracks."

"Yes, sir," she said, "His DNA will help us not only fight cancer, but create a weapon that we can use in case he turns against us."

"How many Earths had a bad superman?" He asked.

"Seventeen out of thirty we discovered," she said, "This is just a precaution in case our..."

"So, your solution is to build a clone of Superman?" He asked as he put the documents in his end box. "What happens when the clone turns on us?"

"We'd control the clone," she said, "Teach it to love humanity from birth."

"And the cancer?" He asked.

"That's the easy part," she said, "We stole the formulas from Doctor James on one of the other Earths. I gave it to our Doctor James, and he's ready to start working on the solution. But..."

"But what?"

"It won't be ready in time to save his Lois."

1999…

Project Cadmus was a large government institution located in Gotham City and a collaborative partner with Wayne's Weapon Institution. Activity happened in the laboratory, all day and all night long, and security trucks ran around the compound constantly monitoring people. The Bioweapons Division was on the bottom floor almost fifty miles under the surface of the planet, and Mr. Wayne was opposed to this portion of his father's company.

Bruce Wayne knew a part of his company dabbled in genetic material, but he didn't find out until the early nineties that his company was involved in a project to build a clone of Superman. He hated the thought of man playing God, especially if it had anything to do with Wayne Industries. Every time he voted to close the Bioengineering portion of his company, the other board members teamed against him to keep it open.

In his black suit with a deep scar over his left eye, he lunged to his feet, and screamed, "We're not gods."

"Bruce, sit down," Mr. Gray, an older man sitting at the head of the table screamed. "This puts your father's company at the head of the cloning game."

"Cloning? We're playing with Pandora's box by cloning Superman. Once it's opened..."

"Cadmus will make one clone," Mr. Gray said as he held up his right index finger. "One."

"Then we should move Cadmus from the center of Gotham."

"Having them in plain sight takes away the mystery," Mr. Gray said as he closed his brief case. "That's where they'll stay."

The beauty of Project Cadmus was its location. It was seated in the downtown area with over two hundred thousand residents in a one mile radius. The surface portion of Cadmus looked like an ordinary warehouse with forklifts, big trucks and workers rolling in and out of it all day. None of the military personnel on the compound wore any uniforms associated with the government. People appeared to be factory workers on the outside of the company, and changed to their lab coats once they entered the main building.

Amanda Waller and Doctor Jason James walked through the double doors near project five, and they had a large man strapped to a table, injected him with a green chemical compound, and the man grimaced. A monitor hung from the ceiling directly over the patient's head that kept track of his vital signs, and all readings were normal at first. The young man appeared to be content on the table, but his hands and feet were bound with heavy chains. He wasn't struggling or trying to fight.

On the other aside of the room, a young woman lay on a table with her legs propped in the air, and a pile of blood was on the ground around the table. Her body was lifeless, and she had died immediately upon giving birth to something that wasn't quite human.

Doctor Jason James was an older man approximately fifty-three years old with a short buzz cut. He held a device similar to a tablet computer that scanned the man's chest.

"We've synthesized Superman's DNA," Doctor James said as he looked at the readout on the computer. "Things aren't looking good with the test subjects. Once the chemical compound kicks in, they all explode."

"What's the cause?" Amanda asked as she took a quick glance at the computer screen. "It reads unstable."

The man started screaming at the top of his lungs, and then Doctor James said, "You'll want to back up behind the protective shield."

They quickly ran behind the protective shield, and the man blew up on the table. Blood flew all over the walls and ceiling.

"How many test subjects have we lost?" She asked.

"Seventeen since nineteen-eighty-three. We're overlooking something, but..."

"Seventeen?" She asked with a dismayed look on her face. Walking over to the table, she studied the gigantic hole in the middle of the man's chest. "It's only a matter of time before somebody notices these men are missing."

"It's costly, but…"

"What happened to the eggs?" She asked as she studied the man's face.

"We've run out," he said, "We only had a few. All the babies died as soon as they were born; the mothers too."

She walked over to the window outside the laboratory, and gazed at the young lifeless woman strapped to the table with a pool of blood at the end of the table that dripped onto the floor, and said, "Setup health clinics in the Gotham slums. Offer free healthcare to the poor, and then harvest all the eggs you need. Free always works."

"Do we give them help?" He asked as he walked up behind her.

"Of course. Cure their illnesses, take the genetic materials you need, and then send them home. This is the perfect setup."

2039…

A young pregnant African American woman lay on an operating table with her legs propped in the air, and a doctor stood over her delivering her baby. The woman kept losing conscious, and one of the nurses kept reviving her. Her hair was soaking wet from the tons of sweat, and then the baby began to crown.

An old black woman stood in the background as the young woman gave birth, and it was Amanda Waller, the leader of Cadmus. She was now a chubby old woman with a cane, gray hair, and thick bifocals.

"I've waited nearly forty years for this day," she said as she wiped the corners of her mouth. "All my energy went into cloning Superman's powers and creating the perfect killing machine."

Vera Reese, the doctor that delivered the baby held the infant in her scrawny arms, and placed him in a small basket. Sweat poured from the doctor's head as she quickly placed the child in the basket because she wore a thick, insulated suit that protected her from the baby's life force. She had on some thick, insulated gloves and a heavy padded coat that kept her from having direct contact with the newborn. Walking back over to the mother, she noticed one of the nurses reach for the child.

"Don't...," she screeched as she watched the young nurse reaching for the child wearing only the thin, little surgical gloves. She fell to the ground, dead. Amanda wiped her mouth as she looked at the nurse that lay dead on the cold ground, and a look of fear took over her face.

"What happen to her?" She screamed.

"She's dead," Doctor Reese said as she checked her pulse.

Another nurse tried to give some assistant to the nurse that lay dead on the ground, and she stumbled into the child's basket. The baby nearly fell to the ground, but the nurse caught him, and she fell face first on top of the child. She was dead.

"What the hell?" Doctor Waller screamed.

"Nobody touches the baby," Doctor Reese screamed as she pulled the dead nurse off the top of the infant. She tried to resuscitate the two women, but it was hopeless. They were dead.

When the doctor walked over to the mother, she checked for a pulse, and she was dead too. Anybody that came in direct contact with the child died almost immediately.

"Did she have family?" Doctor Waller asked as she watched the horror unfold in front of her.

"No, ma'am," Doctor Reese said, "She was a homeless teenager. Just some homeless girl."

"Then it's better this way. She would have had to disappear anyway."

Doctor Reese looked down at the infant, and said, "He'd never know love."

"He's a super soldier," Doctor Waller said as she smiled at the baby, "We'll mold him into the perfect killing machine."

2042…

Doctor Reese stood over a hot cup of coffee at her desk, and studied a chart of the child's vital signs. She was a young doctor, a doctor that graduated at the top of her class in Bio Engineering, and the young clone was her pet project. Her desk contained the basics: computer, calculator, tablet PC, and an old fashion type writer. On the other side of her office was a play area for the child with all kinds of little toys. She observed his every move, and entered a journal of his activities into the computer.

She hit record on the computer screen, and said, "I've been calling test subject Alpha Jimmy for two years now, and that's the name he answers to." She walked around the room flicking a pen, and then said, "For only two years old and some days, he's extremely powerful. We're unable to draw blood from the child because his skin's like steel. In addition, if anybody touches his skin with or without gloves, they usually die within seconds. A person wearing insulated gloves usually can pick the child up for thirty-three seconds before his powers soak through the materials, and kills them. Eighteen scientists have come in physical contact with him, and they're all dead. Even though I cannot hold Jimmy like a mother holds her child, I cannot help that I've developed feelings for the child. It pains me that I have to expose Jimmy to danger just to test the limits of his abilities, but whatever Superman can do, he can do. I've gotten too close to the subject. Tomorrow we'll expose him to extreme heat."

An older woman, Doctor April Gray, with a skinny face, long hair, and a white lab coat placed Jimmy into a furnace as he played with a little doll soldier. It was obvious that Doctor Gray was the kind of woman who spent most of her free time in the gym trying to hang on to her youthful figure. She forcefully grabbed the soldier out of his hands, threw it onto the ground, and slapped the child in the face with her thick padded gloves. She hated the child, and the fact that so many good men and women died brining him into the world. She followed the exploits of Doctor Waller nearly all her adult life, and helped developed the method to bring the clone into the world. When she first started her experiments with young girls from the inner city and impregnating them with Clark's seed, she never had a clue that the sole survivor would survive, and be so powerful and dangerous; and when she did find out that he'd have the abilities to kill with a simple touch, it was too late. Nothing on the planet could penetrate the child's skin, and she knew that, but tried to find ways to hurt the child every day.

"Pay attention," she muttered. Her mouth curved downward, eyes squinted, and then she spat in the little boy's face. "You're the biggest scientific mistake in the history of man."

He gave her an awkward grimace, as though he understood what she said, and then started to cry for the doll. When he reached his hands for the discarded toy it flew into the air, and into his little hands. She pushed him back into the furnace, tore the toy from his fingers, and closed the door. After grabbing the tape recorder out of her pocket, she said, "Starting temperature will be three hundred degrees Fahrenheit." She threw the toy into the trash can under her desk, and little Jimmy frowned until she went behind the screen where he couldn't see her.

A flame of fire flew across the child's face as his clothes incinerated off his body, and he laughed loudly, clapped his hands, and then the thermometer shot up to three hundred degrees. He looked over at the flame, and shot freezing air out of his mouth that clogged up the nozzle, and the good doctor hopped to her feet. "Dammit!"

"It appears that three hundred degrees has no adverse effect on the child," she said with a stern look on her face, "He's enjoying it. We'll take the temperature up to nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit."

Another nozzle, a bigger nozzle lowered into the chamber, and shot a stronger flame in the boy's face. After fifteen minutes of shooting fire directly into the child's face, she pushed a button that caused a laser rifle to descend from the ceiling attached to a robotic arm. She opened the door to the furnace, and the child walked out of it, and sat in the middle of the room naked. She adjusted the ray to point directly at the child's head, and then smiled after she turned on the laser switch, and the computer said "Kryptonite enhanced weapon will be on-line in five minutes." She wanted the boy to die. She knew he was a child, but he wasn't only a child. If he grew up without knowing the touch of another human being, he'd grow into mankind's worse enemy, the destroyer. And regardless of what Doctor Waller had to say, she wasn't going to let this child grow into an adult, ever.

"Not even Superman can withstand a blast of concentrated, green kryptonite," she said as she turned the power knob to the maximum setting.

"The weapon is ready," the computer said, "Fire at will."

"I will," she said as she shot a full blast of kryptonite at the child's head. He started screaming, and then he shot red lasers out of his eyes destroying the weapon.

"Subject Alpha will protect himself when threatened," Doctor Gray said as she sat behind her desk. "Special note … We should terminate Subject Alpha before he grows into a threat."

2044…

Amanda Waller sat in her quaint little home on the edge of Washington DC, and Doctor April Gray and Doctor Reese sat across from her in business suits holding on to tablet computers. Amanda took out her tablet PC, pulled up an email, and said, "I read your assessment of the child."

"He's stronger with every passing day," she said, "His existence threatens humanity."

"I disagree," Doctor Reese said as she pulled up the email. "We've come too far to terminate the project."

"But does he threaten mankind?" Doctor Waller asked with a dead calmness about her.

Doctor Reese placed her table PC on her lap, and kept quiet, but Doctor Gray immediately said, "Yes. He's a five-year-old monster."

"He's not a monster…," Doctor Reese snapped.

"Then what is he?" Doctor Gray asked, "Have we not lost eighteen good men and women at his hands?"

"Yes, but…"

"But what? "

Doctor Waller placed her hands on her forehead, and said, "If we terminate him, we lose forty years of work and countless taxpayer dollars."

"But when he decides mankind no longer suits him, he'll wipe us out with only a mere wave of his hands."

"Doctor Gray, Amanda, we can't forsake the project," Doctor Reese said, "It benefits no one to give up."

"We designed him to take on the Justice Corp if they ever became a threat," Doctor Waller said with a soft voice. "But they have been a faithful ally to mankind since the beginning."

"What are you saying?" Doctor Reese asked.

"Terminate the project," Doctor Waller said, "Use whatever means necessary."

Later on that week, Doctor Gray stood in the control room with a block of black kryptonite, and stuck it onto the robotic arm. Jimmy sat in the middle of the control room playing with a stack of building blocks when the robotic arm slid from the ceiling and pointed directly at the child's head.

"Black kryptonite will end this child's life," she said as she configured the robotic arm. "He'll never have time to adapt to the black kryptonite."

When she hit the fire button, the ray hit the child in the head, and the boy's powers caused a nuclear explosion that leveled ten city blocks, killing thousands, including everybody within the plant.

Doctor Reese rode a hover disc over to the enormous crater in the middle of Gotham, and saw Jimmy sitting in the middle of it. The crater was over a mile wide with bodies thrown all over the place.

Gamma

(Chapter One)

A young child, a child no more than seven-years-old stood in the hallway of East Metropolis Elementary afraid to go inside the front door because he wasn't used to being outside of his room. It was a huge building, an intimidating building because of the Victorian steeple on top of the main hall, and the lion shaped statues in front of the building that looked threatening to any kid. It was the kind of building that stood inside a large security fence, and had armed guards with chiseled jaws patrolling the outside wall. The razor-sharp wire around the compound stood fifty-feet in the air, and only individuals with super abilities could leap it. It was like a prison, but was the only school for the gifted in Metro City.

With his green backpack hanging off his back, tears falling off his face, his mother, Vera Reese, pushed him through the front door of the building wearing some thick, insulated gloves. The little boy wore a silver insulated body suit, and it covered every portion of his body except his face; his face was the only flesh the world could see wherever he went; and at the young age of seven, he grew tired of telling everybody he had a rare skin condition that forced him to wear the suit, even in the hot sun. Usually, once he told them about his skin, the majority of people backed off at that point. He knew that if he touched another human being, they would die a horrible death within seconds of contact, but Vera had to make sure he understood, so she reminded him often about being responsible.

"What's the first rule, Jimmy?" She asked as she made sure not to directly touch the boy. His skin would draw the life force out of any person, human or otherwise, if they touched him. Her gloved hands pushed up against his body suit, and she drew her hands back because she could feel his molecular field draining her energy every second that her gloved hand stayed on his shoulder. She knew her gloves only gave her fifteen seconds of protection once she touched him through his body suit. Without the body suit, he would drain the energy from everything around him.

"Never touch or let anybody touch me," he said with a whisper.

"That's right," she said, "Never touch anybody because your curse will kill them. What else?"

"Never remove my body suit unless in a controlled environment," he said.

Jimmy arrived early to school on the first day every day, since he started kindergarten two years earlier, but he didn't have any friends, not one. He didn't interact with any of the other children, unless it was under the direct supervision of one of his teachers, and she placed him in the very front of the classroom, but away from the other students. His desk sat off to the left front side, and all the other students were at least six feet from him at all times. It was for safety. Every year, since he started school, he only lasted a few months before the other kids tortured him into staying home; and once he made up his mind to stay home his mother had to quit whatever meaningless job she was working, and ensure he received the proper home education. It frustrated her, but she realized life would be painful as she did everything within her powers to protect him.

A tall man, a man with dark black hair and a few silver streaks on the side walked into the classroom. Mr. Kent pushed his daughter, Mia, into the class, and she seemed a little shy too. Jimmy looked at the man, and immediately noticed something about him that clicked in his mind, and Mr. Kent glared over at him, but didn't give him a second thought. Mr. Kent had some of the thickest rimmed glasses, a rarity in a time when most eye problems were curable. He looked down at his shiny black shoes, and wondered what his father looked like. He knew that scientists grew him in a lab; but at the same time, he knew that some man provided the genetic material.

Mia was a tall seven-years-old girl with dark black hair, blue eyes, and red lips. Her lips were redder than the color red, and she had freckles on her nose. She sat in the front of the classroom, and Mr. Kent tipped his hat to the instructor, and then walked away.

Recess came pretty quickly on the first day of school, and Jimmy sat by the south fence where he ate his meal. A dense fog covered the city, and it was hard to see the top of the hill that stood behind him. Some of the kids were playing together when they looked over at Jimmy, and said, "Look at the freak."

One of the students, Aaron Checks, pointed to him, and screamed, "You're a freak." Aaron continued to mock Jimmy, and then kicked dirt in his face.

Jimmy hopped to his feet, ran off towards the school, and left his lunch on the ground. He didn't want any problems because he knew if he retaliated that it would hurt his Momma. Aaron was a popular kid, and arrived to school every day in a black limo. He had a funny looking hair cut that resembled an old fashion bowl cut, but Jimmy never made fun of him. Every time the young bully tried to attack him, he just walked away from the confrontation. It was better for him if everybody thought he had a skin condition that endangered his life if exposed; but if everybody knew the truth, they would ban him from the school.

After a few weeks of torture, Jimmy started leaping the huge fence, and eating his lunch at the top of the hill that over looked Metro City. He came across several meteor rocks that had settled into the hill, but he didn't bother them until Mia followed him up the hill one day. He had noticed her staring at him, but he tried to ignore her because he didn't want anybody getting close to him.

"What do you want?" Jimmy asked as he sat on top of the hill. He had a little frown on his face because he wanted her to leave.

"You're not suppose to be here," she said as she slowly climbed to the top of the hill behind him. He could hear her every foot step, and she stomped her feet as she marched up the hill.

"Neither are you," he replied. She fell to one knee as blood fell out of her nose, and then passed out in front of his feet. "What's wrong with you?" He noticed some of the green rocks glowing and buzzing loudly beneath her body, and he felt a feeling of panic. He waved his right hand in front of his face, and she hovered nearly twenty feet above his head. With the other hand, he pointed at the rocks and they flew to the other side of the hill. Placing her on the ground, she slowly sat up, and said, "I feel a little sick."

"You shouldn't be around me," he said, "My skin condition."

"What's wrong with your skin?"

"A rare disease," he said, "I'm allergic to everything."

"That sucks," she said with a grimace. "How many powers do you have?"

Jimmy walked away from her with his arms folded, and looked at the downtown area of Metro City. "We shouldn't discuss our powers."

"But you saved me," she said, "My powers come and go."

"Not mine. They're my curse," he lamented, "Just wish they'd go away."

Later that evening, Jimmy sat at the dinner table eating a plate full of food, watching television, and talking to his mother. She sat on the other end of the table, and asked, "How was school?" She picked up her coffee mug, took a sip, and sat it back down on the table.

"Okay," he replied, "Met a girl."

She gave him an awkward grimace as her right index finger traced the rim of the cup, and said, "You know the rules, Jimmy?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said, "I didn't try to be friends with her, Momma. She came to me."

"The slightest touch."

"I know, Momma. It'll kill her," he said, "But..."

"As soon as you finish your meal, head for bed," she said, "Gotta get up early tomorrow because I have a job interview."

"Yes, ma'am," he said without hesitation. He grabbed his plate of food, walked it into the kitchen, and dropped the contents down the garbage disposal.

On the outside of his room was a green light; but as soon as he walked into the room, the light turned red to tell his Momma that he was no longer in his protective uniform. The walls of his room were made out of lead, and it shielded his Momma from his exposed skin. She never came into his room or came in contact with him as long as he was out of his suit. He hated that suit, but it gave him some normalcy as long as he didn't directly touch another human being. A day hadn't passed since he was a little kid that he hadn't dreamed of holding some girl's hand or getting a hug from his Momma. He knew that Vera wasn't his real Momma, but she was his Momma all the same. She was part of the team that made him.

Every night he went to sleep with the Gotham Explosion on his mind. The official death toll of the explosion was seventy-five thousand dead, and nearly three hundred thousand injured. Thousands of people went missing, and the government counted those people among the dead. They were incinerated by the extreme heat. His Momma told him a thousand times that it wasn't his fault; but if he hadn't been born, all those people would still be alive, and that thought raced through his mind every day. The news media said that terrorist attacked Gotham City, and many people blamed Batman because his antics always grabbed the polices' attention away from the real terrorist. The people of Gotham called Batman the devil; and every time he tried to help ordinary citizens with their problems, they attacked him and tried to tear off his mask. So, after months of trying to win favor with the people of Gotham City, he gave up on them, and moved to Metro City. And when Batman came to Metro City, a group of thugs called the Jokers followed behind him, and they battled on the Metro City streets daily.

The next day Vera placed him in the front seat of her hover-vehicle, and they drove to a scientific laboratory on Fifth Street, and he sat in the passenger seat fiddling with his gloves. With all the stresses of keeping Jimmy out of trouble and buying the expensive materials to make his protective suit, Vera needed a job badly. The laboratory assistant job paid very well, and it was an opportunity for her to get her foot in the door at a huge government facility.

Jimmy looked through the front wall of the building, and saw a room full of people filling out applications. It seemed so crowded to him that people were nearly sitting on top of each other. With his abilities to see through walls, he kept his Momma informed of the little things.

"It's crowded, Momma. Real crowded."

"It's by appointment," she said with the corners of mouth curved upwards, "Will you be alright sitting in the car by yourself?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said, "Can we get ice cream later?"

"Maybe," she said with a look of concern, "Let's take one thing at a time, okay?" She hopped out of the car, walked into the building, and he saw her walk up to the desk.

After that, he pulled off his thick, insulated gloves, popped his fingers, and placed his bare hands on his lap. A loud swoosh flew over the top of the vehicle that startled him, and he saw two dudes in white uniforms chasing a black streak. When he looked up, he saw a man bat fly threw the air with two men in joker uniforms chasing him. The Batman flew over his head, and then Jimmy stuck out his hands, shot a red ray at the Jokers, and caused the criminals to fall to the ground.

"What the hell?" The larger joker said as he pointed to Jimmy. "Did you do that, boy?"

The Batman flew in front of the kid, and said, "Pick on somebody your own size, Jokers."

"Get him," the smaller Joker said as he dove towards Batman. The wing bat flew into the air, and the smaller Joker grabbed Jimmy's left hand, and died on the cold concrete. Jimmy looked over the man, and stumbled back into the car.

"Jinx, get the hell up," the bigger Joker said, "Get up, man."

"He's dead," Jimmy said with a deep concern on his face.

"Dead. What do you mean?" The Joker asked as he grabbed his friend's hand.

"You better go," Jimmy said, "Just leave or you'll die too." He reached into the car, grabbed his gloves, and quickly and haphazardly placed them back on his hands.

The larger Joker lunged towards the little kid, and he shot the Joker in the chest with two lasers that flew from his eyes. Batman blocked the glare of the blast with his forearm, and said, "Holy crap."

His mother walked out of the office, saw the dead body and the other Joker holding his chest, and screamed, "Get in the car, Jimmy." She flew down the street, and the shadow of the bat flew over head, then disappeared behind a tall building. "What did you do?"

"He grabbed my hands," he said as he looked down at his gloves. "I just took them off for just a second, Momma."

She looked over at him, and said, "We can't stay in Metro City. We're exposed."

When the car pulled up to the breeze way of their home, everything appeared normal, and the porch light lit up the entire front yard. A cool breeze raced through the trees, and Jimmy paused because he thought he heard something fly over his head. In the distance, he heard the neighbor's dog barking loudly, and a hint of a man's cologne let him know that Batman was near.

"What's wrong with you?" Vera asked as she paused behind him. "We gotta get our things."

"Listen! I smell the Batman," he said as he put his right hand in the air. Batman slowly walked out of the shadows wearing his sleek uniform, and Jimmy nearly backed up into Vera.

"Watch it, Jimmy," Vera said.

"You killed that joker," he said as he stood in front of Jimmy and Vera.

"He grabbed..."

"Be quiet, Jimmy," Vera said as she walked in front of him. "You're a wanted man, Batman."

"Don't change the subject, lady. I saw what the boy did."

"I didn't mean to kill him," Jimmy said, "It's my curse."

"Cursed?" Batman asked with a smirk on his face. "What kind of curse?"

"If he comes in contact with anything living, it dies immediately," Vera said, "Not even your suit can protect you from his touch."

"Is that a threat?" Batman asked.

"I don't want to hurt anybody," Jimmy said as he placed his hands in his pockets.

Batman walked up to Vera, and said, "I know you."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"That night. The night of the explosion in Gotham," he said, "I crossed your path."

"You didn't see anything," she said.

"I told Mr. Wayne that I saw a woman and a kid in the middle of the big crater, and he just blew it off," he said, "Six months later and the old man was dead."

"Okay. Okay," Vera said, "Cadmus tried to kill the boy, and it set off an explosion equivalent to a nuclear bomb."

"And it didn't kill the boy?" Batman asked.

"Would it have killed Superman?" She asked.

"He's a clone," Batman said, "That makes perfect sense."

A knife flew over Batman's head, hit Vera in the stomach, and she fell to the ground in a pool of blood. The little boy stood over her, and watched her as she spit up blood. Angered, three Jokers appeared out of the shadows swinging swords, and one of the Jokers sliced Batman across the stomach, and then struck Jimmy in the head causing the entire blade to shatter.

"Run, kid," Batman screamed as he fell to his knees.

Another Joker came up behind the bat swinging a sword, and then Jimmy sliced him in half with the heat ray coming from his eyes. The other two Jokers grabbed Jimmy by the hands, and they fell to the ground dead in front of a crying and bleeding Vera.

"You did good, Jimmy," she whispered as she looked at the blood dripping from her hands. "Momma's going home."

"No, Momma. Don't leave me," Jimmy begged as he watched her dying.

"We gotta get her to the hospital," Batman said as he held his side with both hands.

"It's too late for me," she said, "You have to take care of Jimmy. Train him."

"Me?" Batman asked.

"Show him what it's like to be human," she said, "Don't let him grow into The Monster."


	2. Chapter 2

A broad shoulder man, approximately six-foot four, stood in front of a small silver cylinder craft, and smirked. On the other side of him was a woman somewhere in her late twenties, pregnant, and wearing a light, see-through gown. His garb flowed right above his ankles, and he wore golden bracelets on both wrists. "If not for the shield, my father would have put me in this thing."

"It's magnificent." She raked her fingers across the smooth surface of the vessel. "Kryptonian technology is so advanced, even from forty-years ago."

"La El," he whispered as he put his large hands on her face. He towered above her like a giant, and she was only a little over five-foot four. "The shield's days are numbered."

"You can't give up hope," she snapped. She placed her hands on her bulging belly. "You're your father's son, Kal-El."

He smiled gently. "Did the baby kick?"

"Yeah. He's strong, this one." La El walked over to the window in her bay looked at the large generators that powered the shield, and said, "How long do we have?"

"Six months, a year, maybe two." He wrapped his arms around his wife's tiny frame. "The vessel still works."

"But we're Kryptonians. If it's our time, then it's our time."

"You sound like the Elders," he said with a grimace. "The Elders listened to the Guardians, and now we're a doomed race. We could have…"

"You know what happens when we leave the confines of our solar system," she said, "Our powers grow. We become godlike and petty."

"Is that a crime?" He asked in haste.

"Yes. It's a crime against everything we stand for as a people," she said as she sat on her wide bed that covered half her bay. "The legend states: we live under a red sun. We die under a red sun."

Meanwhile:

Jimmy sat next to the pond on the old Wayne property looking over the soft water, eating a sandwich, and listening to the crickets. The fish bobbed in and out of the water majestically, and he looked on with amazement. A black dragonfly buzzed near his head for a few seconds, and then it fell to the ground and died. It was a common occurrence that happened with mosquitoes and flies, but it was the first for a dragonfly. A light fishy smell emanated from the water, but it didn't bother the young clone too much, because he enjoyed the sounds of nature. He took off his shoes and socks, and then stuck his feet into the water until all the fish floated to the top like those red and white fish bobbers. They floated lifelessly on top of the pond, and all he could say was, "Oops!"

He couldn't believe what he had done, because he knew his energy flowed through water like electricity, and now hundreds of fish lay dead in the quiet pond. If he wanted the Batman to like him, he knew that he needed to do a better job at not killing the wildlife. All he wanted to do was to enjoy the cool water between his toes, and now he caused an ecological disaster—something his Momma warned him about plenty of times when he acted recklessly. It wouldn't take long before the fish stunk up the place. His mother would have warned him about taking off his shoes in public, if not for her death at the hands of three jokers, because everything living he touched died, including the grass beneath his feet. She always made sure he stuck to the rules, so he didn't accidentally kill somebody.

He flew over the mansion and next to his little tent that the Batman setup in the middle of the field, and wondered if his Momma was in Heaven. He had heard one of the kids talking about God while she read the Bible in his last school, but he never believed in the one true God, or even many gods. What was the probability that some guy somewhere worried about one insignificant person? And when it came to creation, he knew his Momma helped grow him in a lab with the essences of Superman; and somewhere in the scheme of things, she made a mistake. Maybe God was man's creation that forced the masses to obey man's laws. The probability of some all-knowing being that punished the wrongdoers wasn't reality, because evil flowed through Metro City like water through the Mississippi River.

The smell of cologne struck Jimmy's nose, when the Batman appeared in front of him holding a silver cylinder. He looked thin in his suit, almost too thin. He might have weighed around one hundred and sixty-two pounds at the most, and he was approximately six-foot two to six-foot three feet tall.

"What is this?" He asked as he looked at the silver cylinder.

"Your mother's ashes."

The Batman pulled off his dark mask with the long pointy ears, and he was an older white man with a scar over his left eye. It was a horrid scar, the kind of scar that looked like a knife slice across his face. It was ugly.

"What happen?"

He placed his hand over his wounded eye, and said with a serious look on his face, "Life happened." He laughed a little, and then he had a look of anger on his face. "A few years back, I was on patrol in Gotham City when an explosion happened." He looked off into space for a moment, and said, "It was a nuclear explosion that killed thousands." Grabbing a brown folder he had stuffed in his costume, he threw it on the ground. "The explosion was you."

"Yeah. I remember," he said as he grabbed the folder off the ground. "They tried …"

"To kill you. I know," he said, "Nobody else can know." He pulled out a lighter, grabbed the folder, and then lit the secret on fire. "This way nobody can ever know who you are."

It didn't take much fire to burn the folder and all its contents, but he still didn't feel his secret was safe. Terry threw the burning material onto the ground, stood over it, and watched it burn.

"So many men paid a price for you," he said as the glare from the burning folder bounced off his eyes. "I'll give you a home, and raise you right."

Jimmy awoke to the sound of machines working on the Wayne mansion, for a special room where he could sleep without killing Terry with his energy field. The grass around the tent was completely brown, because his energy field killed it. He hated sleeping in his mask, so he pulled it off in the middle of the night, which caused the grass around his tent to die. The smell of the dead fish stuck to everything on the Wayne property; it was thick in the air.

Swarms of birds swooped down to grab the dead water life, but they never resurfaced, because Jimmy's energy lingered in the pond. Later in the evening, he flew over to the pond to see hundreds of birds lying dead beside the pond. With the sun's rays slowly cooking the dead, he decided to use his heat vision to burn the birds. When he shot the red energy from his eyes, he turned every dead animal in the pond into dust, and the water in the tarn completely dried.

Weeks went by fast and furious, and Terry patrolled every night without question. He didn't talk much. He sat on the couch with a picture of a young, teenage boy, a bottle of rum, and cried. It was a nightly ritual that bothered Jimmy, because Terry kept everything about his life hidden. His black hair had a few gray streaks on top, but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Who's that in the picture?"

He paused for minute. Jimmy could tell he tried to curve his frown into a smile, but he couldn't do it. "My brother." His voice crackled.

"Did he die or something?"

He looked up at Jimmy with a serious face, and said, "Or something. Not everybody could be saved."

"From what?"

"Themselves!" He snapped. The picture fell to the ground, and the glass shattered near Terry's feet. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," Jimmy said. He pointed to the broken glass with his right index finger, and it became a solid piece.

"Your powers are growing," he whispered. "Use them wisely."

"Tell me about Matthew."

He laughed a little, after he set the picture on the coffee table. "Ever heard of Smear?"

"Smear? Uh, no."

"It was my first year of law school," he said as he gazed at the ground. "Several teenagers on a field trip to Gotham's Nuclear Power Plant were involved in a major accident."

"What happened?" Jimmy asked wide-eyed and curious.

"Fate, life, a change that destroyed my brother," he said with a grimace. "All the kids gained powers on some level, but Matthew..."

"Was he as powerful as Superman?" He asked.

Laughing. "Not that powerful, but pretty powerful nonetheless." He wiped the smile off his face as easy as it came. "He killed my fiance stealing money from Gotham Bank." He clasped his hands, and then tears rolled down his slender face. "Didn't know the killer was him until one of my bombs blew off his mask, killing him instantly."

"Oh my goodness," he said, "What did you do?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all," he said, "But it killed my poor mother when she found out her youngest was dead. Her heart gave out."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kal-El watched the flaring red sun with a pair of black visors, and he knew within his stone heart that he needed to save his people—at least the ones who wanted saving from the precarious radioactive waves. Playing with his thoughts, he knew—probably better than anybody—the Guardians wouldn't simply allow him to leave the galaxy, and search for a new home. They were watching, waiting, and anticipating for him to make a move, to make a strategic maneuver to flee Krypton, and they waited on the fringes of the galaxy with teams of man-bots. Billions of Kryptonians would die regardless of his decision, but he felt he could save a few, at least the men and women who served under him.

The Guardians feared if the Kryptonians left the galaxy, and sieged the opportunity to live under a yellow sun, they would become gods to the inhabitants of that world. And as far as the Guardians were concerned, Kryptonians under a yellow sun would become petty and cruel—and destructive to any civilization. A yellow sun increased a Kryptonians strength by an insurmountable amount, and it couldn't be measured to any degree. And by denying them the ability to leave their dying galaxy, they could ensure none of Kryptonians had the opportunity to escape to a yellow sun, and become nearly indestructible.

He knew he couldn't save all of his people—realizing the majority of them were mere sheep, and slaves to a system of oppression started nearly two centuries ago. Many of the inhabitants of Krypton had given up any hope of finding a new world, a better world, a world drawing energy from a yellow sun. Perturbed, he grudgingly sipped his hot tea—grimacing at the flareups from the angry red sun. The tea had a bland taste; it wasn't anything special, but it helped keep him calm as he watched the last days of Krypton from the window of his battleship. All of his work only bought him a small amount of time to prepare an emigration from Krypton; and he worked closely with the military department—building exoskeleton suits with enough firepower to stop the man-bots.

The exoskeleton program, a program created by Kal-El, didn't have the approval from the Elders because they usually objected to anything that challenged the Guardians of Oa. Jor-El designed the man-bots, but Zod killed him before he had an opportunity to implement the program. After Kal-El finished his advance studies, he forged a team of scientist in secret that perfected Jor-El's design, and now he had exoskeleton suits for nearly every soldier on the planet.

Krypton no longer had the ability to filter out the dangerous radioactive waste from the atmosphere, and now the majority of men were barren—unable to strengthen the numbers of the race. The radioactive particles in the atmosphere caused thousands of birth defects. Instead of fighting against the Elders—mere men who capitulated to the will of the Guardians—they waited for death like a messy child waiting for its momma to change it. Unfortunately, the few babies born within the last few years were all hideously grotesque. Deformed. The Elders ordered all the malformed babies culled, but never lifted a finger to vacate Krypton, a dying planet on its last days.

Continuously sipping an old-recipe tea, he walked away from the deck, and sat back in his command chair—thinking. His dark hair had a flash of gray in it, and he looked like a man with rugged good looks. With a nose that set prominent on his face, he was a man within his late forties or early fifties, and he spent the majority of his adult life taking care of the protective shield around the planet. Angered, he continued to seethe about the decision of the Elders to stay on Krypton, a planet everybody knew only had months left before total annihilation. In addition, he hated the Guardians, and considered their authority null and void to Kryptonian matters. Unfortunately, the sheep didn't see the Guardians as hypocrites like Kal-El did. No no. They saw them as the redeemers. The stresses of dealing with the Guardians caused him to wear a hole in the arm rest of his command chair. Repeatedly, he rubbed his hands back and forth on the arm rest until a nice hole existed in both of them. He gently bit his bottom lip, and then slammed both of his fist on the arm rests, charged out the bridge, and headed for his quarters.

Kal-El wanted to talk some sense into the Elders; the Guardians, kill them with the maximum amount of prejudice. The robotic man-bots stood watch on the edge of the galaxy, and they did the bidding of the Guardians. None of the man-bots had the ability to feel or show compassion or make nothing more than a cold, calculating decision that left all humanoids bitter. They had some of the most advance technology in the universe behind them, and they kept the Kryptonians at bay. If Kal-El wanted to leave the galaxy, he'd have to kill the man-bots first.

Something had to give for the people to have a fighting chance, and he knew that simple fact better than anybody. He checked on his pregnant wife; she lay in the bed resting because she had only a few days left before she gave birth. The blanket on her bed had the family's symbol for hope on the face of it. The family crest endured, in spite of Braniac, Zod, an unstable sun, and distance. And if Kal-El took a crew of Kryptonians to another galaxy or dimension, the family crest could endure for all eternity. Above his wife's head, he had his sword hanging on the wall with the family crest on the handle. It was sharp. He spent hours sharpening the sword in order to make it perfect. The majority of officers, regardless of rank, had swords as a part of their uniforms.

Kal-El stood over the bed of his wife, La-El, with a worn look about him—frustrated. He turned his quarters into a museum about the history of Krypton in the hopes that he may preserve its history. And above La-El's head between the two swords was a painting representing the Nihilist Movement who helped destroy Krypton. Upon entry into the room, he had two statues of former Elders who stood up to the Guardians before they mysteriously died nearly five hundred years earlier. They were Pu-Tac and Mo-Jik, the rebel Elders, and they helped squash the Nihilist movement. On the far end of the room, a book shelf set against the wall with volumes of Kryptonian literature that dated back nearly fifty thousand years. All of the books was in the databases, but he wanted the actual books.

Her baby could be due at anytime, and he feared for deformities, weaknesses due to the radiation from the sun. None of the test gave an indication about the possibility of a deviation from the norm, but Kal-El feared the worse. He had made up his mind on what needed to be done. The planet—according to his readings—had approximately two or three days left before the radiation overwhelmed the shields. If he didn't coordinate a route out of the galaxy, then the race would be lost forever. "Going to the planet," he said in a guttural voice—brittle. The room seemed quieter than usual—emptied. But it wasn't empty at all because his wife lay sprawled out on the bed in front of him.

"Our race will perish," she said with a grimace. She sat up in the bed, and her belly made it very difficult for her to change positions. "You can't stop what is written, Kal-El."

"Where is this written?" He asked bitterly. Moving to the right side of the bed, he sat down next to his wife. "Where does it say we have to die?" He placed his right hand on his wife's belly, and his fingers looked tattered. The cuticles were frayed because of his nonstop work with the shields. Even though he spent a considerable amount of time washing his stained hands, the oils and dirt still rested untouched under his fingernails. Sometimes he led teams of workers to the generators, and didn't hesitate on getting his hands dirty. He led by example.

"The planet dies … we die," she said in a soft voice. She grabbed his shoulders, looked him in the eyes, and said forcefully, "It's written."

He shook his head in disagreement, removed her hands, stood to his feet, grabbed one of his sword off the wall—and left. Placing the sword in its sheath, he stopped outside of his bedroom, and wondered if killing the Elders was the right thing to do. There wasn't anything else to say to his wife because he thought she was a tool of the Elders like the majority of the planet. The last thing he wanted to do was to defy authority, but he couldn't allow his people to die with a dying planet. Defiance was another tool in order to correct great wrongs; and in Kal-El's mind, staying on Krypton was an unfathomable injustice.

The quilted, slightly radioactive smog covered nearly the entire surface of the planet, and the majority of the citizens lived approximately ten miles beneath the earth. It was a thick smog, the kind of smog that concealed the hidden, surface dangers. Nothing moved on the barren surface of the planet. It was unbreathable. If the animals didn't make it into the chthonian regions of the planet, then they didn't make it. The thick, unbreathable air killed them in a painful manner. Not even the insects crawled on the surface of Krypton because of the thick, unbreathable smog. Even in his protective military uniform, he could feel the deadly rays of the sun beating against his rugged skin. The shield covered his entire face, and allowed him to breath clean, Kryptonian air. Regardless, he had to face the Elders for what he perceived as insolence to the safety of his race. He traveled down a dark corridor into a commodious cave about two miles wide, and huge birds soared majestically above the man-made city with its artificial lights. It was an incredible display of Kryptonian technology, but it wasn't enough to save them from total destruction. The fresh air hit him in the face when he removed his protective helmet and face-shield. In the distance, he could see several soldiers engaged in tomfoolery, and it disturbed him. Several silver like buildings stood in the center of the cave, and the biggest one held the Elders. Four rough looking guards stood watch outside of the building holding metallic looking weapons, and horse-playing. They weren't paying attention when Kal-El walked up to them. When Kal-El approached them, the men snapped to attention, and came to a fumbling salute. The general didn't bother saluting them back because of their unkempt uniforms. The soldiers stood in front of the general with wrinkled uniforms, messy hair, and dingy faces. When he noticed their tattered, unkempt uniforms, he did everything within his powers to stay calm.

"You men disgust me," he said with a seething grimace. The smell of fear oozed off the guards, but Kal-El didn't care. He looked at the highest ranking guy out the corner of his eyes, and then said, "I should demote you with a beheading right on the spot." He placed his right hand on the guard's shoulder. "Know this! You'll die with this world."

Kal-El continued into the building, down the hall, and into a chamber that held the Elders. The Elder's chamber was the heart of Kryptonian knowledge. The twelve men were the pinnacle of intelligence, but they didn't always take the most intelligent path for the Kryptonian people. The twelve men were eating their meals when Kal-El arrived in his full military garb. They sat behind a nice table with crystal like controls in front of each Elder. The smell emanating from their food was hideous to the general, and he grimaced. The head Elder's name was Sa-Lak, a white haired guy who was the oldest person on the council, and bitter. Looking up at Kal-El, he cleared his throat, and then spoke.

"What's the meaning of this intrusion?" Sa-Lak asked as he used his tongue to remove the food particles off his teeth. Wiping the remaining crumbs from his mouth with a cloth, he leaned forward, and continued sucking on his front teeth, he snapped: "You answer me, General!"

"Krypton is my reason … the people," Kal-El said in a brittle voice. Beads of sweat poured off his head, and he appeared to be agitated. Approaching the council menacingly, Sa-Lak tensed up, and Kal-El read the expression on his face as weakness. It disgusted him more than ever.

"Keep your distance." Sa-Lak's eyes were huger than usually, and he nearly stumbled backwards.

"You fear me?" Kal-El looked around the room at the twelve Elders with a grinning grimace on his chiseled face, and laughed in a dark, insidious manner. All of the Elders looked at him with an angry glare, but it didn't phase him. He continued to mark them. "Cowards," he voiced with utter disgust of the men who stood in front of him. "You cowardly men are what's standing in the way of our survival as a people?"

Sa-Lak jumped to his feet, and asked in a forceful manner, "How dare you, Son of Jar-El? Your disrespect will force me to ask for your resignation."

"And I will proudly give it," he said as he clasped his sword with his rugged hands. He pulled the sharp blade from its sheath, and pointed it to Sa-Lak. Charging at Sa-Lak, he removed the Elder's head from his body, and it rolled off the table, onto the floor, and in front of Kal-El. The Elder's eyes were still open, and the other Elders screamed in fear. He shrugged his broad shoulders at the lifeless head on the ground—kicking it against the far wall. He pointed his blade at all the other Elders as they tried to evade his approach. Sliding his sword back into its sheath, and pulled out his phaser—grinning menacingly. Gasping for air, gnashing of the teeth, pleading for mercy—Kal-El fired upon the Elders with deadly precision—killing them one by one.

By the time Kal-El made it back to his decrepit vessel, his ignoble deed had all ready spread through the colonies, and the media meant to vilify him. When he landed his small craft into the bay, several soldiers stood on the launch pad—armed. The four soldiers—huge in size—wore body suits that enhanced their powers. He didn't have the ability to overtake all four men when in their exoskeleton suits because they were designed to withstand a blow from the man-bots. They took him into custody almost immediately, and he didn't dare say a word. He pulled off his protective gear, and threw the helmet at one of the soldiers, and noticed a crew of loyal supporters peeking into the bay's door.

"You've killed all hope," one of the soldiers replied.

Kal-El laughed. "I've given you hope." With an indignant look about him, he screeched, "You should thank me for showing Krypton the way."

When the bay door slid open, several laser beams hit the four guards in the face, and they fell to the ground—dead. Without the protective face shield and helmets the occupants of the exoskeletons didn't have full protection. Kal-El looked at the dead soldiers, and then told the two assassins, "Prepare the ship to leave Krypton. We only have a few hours."

The crew on the bridge didn't say anything when Kal-El entered the room except bring the bridge to attention. He gave the order for everybody to continue with their duties, and prepared the ship to leave orbit. Some of the soldiers gave him an awkward stare when he commanded them to bring the ship online, and then a soldier by the name of Kara walked over to him. She had a round face with dark hair, round eyes, full lips, and a small nose. She stood approximately sixty seven inches, but was in excellent shape.

"Sir, what are you doing?" She asked forcefully.

"We're leaving," he said with a grimace on his face. Looking out the window at the generators, he replied, "You can leave the ship if you have a problem."

Standing next to him while he sat back down in his commander's chair, she asked, "What about the man-bots? You think they'll let us through."

"We'll bust through," he said, "Now patch me into every news station on the planet."

Kal-El stood in the middle of the busy bridge with all the television stations on the planet viewing him, and Kara stood next to him. "Citizens of Krypton, in approximately two hours, the generators powering the shields will stop running." He paused for a moment to swallow. "The radiation will destroy all life on Krypton. If you have a ship, a conveyance that can leave Krypton, I order you to do so at this time. Flee the galaxy, find a yellow star, and procreate. Spread the Kryptonian seed throughout the universe, so we may survive."

"So, Kara, are you with me?" Kal-El asked in a low, guttural voice. He placed his large, rugged hands on her shoulders, and she had a look of insecurity on her face.

"Yes, sir," she snapped.

"We're all with you, sir," Officer Ric-Un replied. He was an older officer with bushy hair, and he was somewhat like Kal-El in wanting to leave Krypton. He spent a lot of time working on the shield with Kal-El, and he never removed his exoskeleton. Slightly taller than Kal-El, he worked on bringing the ship's engines online. He was the only bridge officer always prepared for battle.

"Sir, my men are working diligently to bring the engines online," Ric-Un said with a dismayed look on his face. He placed his right hand on Kal-El's left shoulder. "Only a stroke of luck ..."

"I believe in you, old friend," Kal-El interrupted. "You'll bring the engines online because you want us to survive as much as I do."

Kara walked over to the window, and smiled sheepishly. "Look, sir. Ships are leaving Krypton."  
>The entire space around Krypton lit up with thousands of vessels leaving the planet, and Kal-El never expected so many souls would leave. There were small vessels, large vessels, oblong vessels, short vessels, boxy vessels, circular vessels, and so on. They all had one mission: save the Kryptonian race. It was a thing of beauty in his mind, and he smiled with every ship that left the planet. Suddenly, he saw a ship exiting his battleship, and asked Kara, "What's that?"<p>

She looked at the ship, and read the log on her tablet computer, and then paused.

"Who is it?" Kal-El asked forcefully.

"Your wife, sir."

He stumbled over to his command chair, placed his hands on his sweaty forehead, and then said, "Should have prepared for this."

"I can lead a crew to retrieve her?" Kara asked.

"She made her choice," Kal-El replied in a stern voice.

When several of the vessels flew into space, a group of man-bots appeared on the radar. The ships that had the ability to jump did; but the ones that didn't have a hyper-drive fought valiantly against the man-bots. At the same time, the engines of the Battleship came online, and Kal-El could feel the energy underneath his feet. The man-bot's lasers ripped through the void, and slammed into several vessels ripping them into shreds.

Without even giving the order, several officers from the bridge ran into the armory located on the second floor, and put on their exoskeletons. The entire crew armed up for battle with the two man-bots who were heading towards them. It didn't take long for the man-bots to descend upon the Kryptonian vessels, and they destroy sixteen ships almost immediately upon their arrival.

The battleship opened fire on the man-bots, but had a hard time hitting the fast moving targets. An array of battle ready soldiers took flight into space, and attacked one of the man-bots. They used sophisticated lasers that tore through the man-bots' armor, and disabled them.

By the time the soldiers made it back to the ship, a crack in the red sun was visible from the battleship, and Kal-El ordered the pilots to take the battleship into hyper-drive. The young men sat at the controls of the ship, and clicked on several buttons. Suddenly, the sun exploded, and the ship went into hyper-drive at the same time. It didn't take long for the ship to come out of hyper-drive, but when it did, they realized they weren't in the same universe. The readings on the ship were nothing like they had ever seen before, and it made them nervous.

"Ja-Ne, where are we?" Kal-El asked the astute pilot.

He turned to Kal-El, and said, "The black Kryptonight from the sun caused us to jump dimensions." He looked at his controls for a minute, and said, "I have no understanding of these readings." He tapped the computer monitor feverishly, and then said, "We're in Kryptonian space, but in another dimension."

Kal-El looked out the window of the battleship, and saw deep pockets of space debris floating around the ship; it was nothing more than chunks of meteor rocks that Ja-Ne would have to traverse through. "Then this must be debris from another Krypton," he said in a guttural voice.

Kara—looking through a scope—analyzed the debris, and then said, "It's nearly fifty-years old, the debris, sir."

"There is nothing here," Kal-El ordered, "Ja-Ne, take us out of here."

After two years of traveling through the emptiness of space, the crew grew restless. The uniforms no longer glistened, and their shoes became torn and tattered. The crew went into survival mode, and did everything within their powers to preserve their food sources. All they had left after three years of traveling was remnants of food. At this point, Kal-El wanted to find a planet with a yellow sun, but it was harder than he had expected. They traveled over three light years, but didn't have a clue how long it would take them to find a habitable planet orbiting a yellow sun. The crew's faces had become emaciated because of lack of quality food. The supplies had run out almost two years into the trek across the universe, and now they ate whatever they could find—including bugs hidden in crevices on the ship. It was nine hundred and thirty days into the voyage across the dark skies when Kara viewed a habitable planet orbiting a yellow sun. She looked worn, tattered, and her lips chaffed. The dirt clung to her bony hands, and she moved with slow movements like an old woman. The crew was tired, and several of them had passed away from starvation.

"Sir, we're three days out from a habitable planet orbiting a yellow star," Kara said with a gleam in her eyes.

He nodded to her, but didn't say a word. He continued watching the planet on his screen, and wondered what kind of lifeforms he'd find. He felt a little overwhelmed by the discovery of a new planet; but at the same time, he felt a great sense of relief. For so long, the crew had traveled through a new dimension without any luck of finding a planet; and now that one lay in front of them, he had a loss of words.

The battleship took orbit around the planet, and Kal-El, Kara, and Ja-Ne went down to the planet in a shuttle craft with Kal-El's family emblem on both sides. It was a primitive world, a world without any advance technology, and men on horseback. They landed in a dense jungle with plenty of edible vegetation. Kara picked a large, green apple off of a tree, and analyzed it with her tablet computer. A green light appeared on the screen, and she took a bite of it. She giggled with each bite.

"Is it good, Kara?" Kal-El asked with a smile.

"Indeed. It's like nothing I've ever tasted."

Kal-El reached up, snatched two shiny apples off the tree, and tossed Ja-Ne one. At first Ja-Ne squinted his eyes as if he was frighten to take a bite of the green fruit, and then he sniffed it. Kal-El looked at him with a smirk, and took a chomp of his apple, and chewed it in a slow, methodical motion.

"Not bad," Kal-El said with a smile.

The apples were plentiful, and covered the entire tree. It wasn't the only apple tree in the jungle either. When Kal-El looked around the high weeds, he could see several trees bearing fruit. It made him happy because he knew he'd be able to feed his crew something. Ja-Ne bit into his apple after Kal-El and Kara survived eating theirs, and the juices ran down his face. He consumed it like a man starving, and then he grabbed another one. Kal-El stopped walking for a moment because he thought he heard something. Suddenly, a flood of noises overwhelmed his senses, and he fell to the ground. Everything made an extreme amount of noise to him, and it caused him to become disoriented.

"Do you hear that?" He asked.

Kare listened for a moment, and then said, "Our abilities are growing."

"Indeed," Kal-El said, "Our senses are taking in everything."

After walking through the jungle for about thirty minutes, it started to rain. It was a cool rain that the crew enjoyed. They saw a water source that had fresh water that they could use. Ja-Ne was the first person to take a drink of the water, and he enjoyed enjoyed it. He stuck his face into the water; and when he pulled it out, he was covered with leeches. It didn't take much to pull them off because they didn't have the ability to penetrate his skin.  
>By the time Ja-Ne pulled all the black leeches off his face, Kal-El noticed a group of tenebrous humanoid creatures standing in the tree-lines with spears that had green tips for the head. The tips of the spears glowed green, and had a razor sharp edge to them. They stood nearly seven-feet tall with long, thick dark hair. When the men trudged through the tall weeds, Kal-El's nose started to bleed, and he quickly fell to one knee. Kara and Ja-Ne fell flat on their faces, and moaned loudly. The head man in the tribe gave one of his men his staff, and they scurried back into the tree-line.<p>

"Kryptonians," the leader said with a smile. He picked Kal-El off the ground, and set him against a large rock, but the Kryptonian looked wobbly. The leader was a tall, thin man with dark skin and long woolly hair. His digits looked longer than a normal humans, and his frontal lobe protruded outwardly. He had a red tint to his eyes that made him look much older than the rest of the people in his tribe. He towered above Kal-El. Kal-El could barely open his eyes because of the effects of the Kryptonite, but was able to make out the man's features through a series of struggling stares. The leader gave him a piece of cloth in order to wipe the blood from his nose.

"What happened?" Kal-El asked with a grimace. Grabbing the cloth, he wiped his nose until he removed all the blood. He continued to feel weak—even though he didn't see any visible kryptonite around him. Nudging Kara, she grunted a little, and then stood to her feet slowly. Ja-Ne was the last one off the ground, and he sat next to the bolder, and didn't stand for awhile.

The leader looked Kal-El in the eyes, and said in a strong voice, "What do want on my world, Kryptonian?"

"Food for my people," he said. Kal-El searched the area with his super vision, and saw glowing, radioactive green rocks underneath the soil. He knew under a yellow sun that the radiation would eventually kill him and his crew.

"You don't want to be here, on Higgus Prime," the leader said in a terse tone. He kicked back some dirt, and it exposed a radioactive rock. Kal-El and his crew stepped backwards, away from the radioactive stone. It set in the dirt, and looked menacing to them. "When your Krypton exploded, it covered my world in this green rock."

"It'll kill us," Kal-El said with a grimace.

"As it nearly did the other Kryptonians who tried to rule Higgus Prime," the leader said with a serious look on his face. "Using their powers to turn us into slaves."

"What happen to them?" Kara asked.

"Some died," the leader said, "The rest left, and deemed Higgus Prime a loss. Zod, sent a warning to all Kryptonians to stay clear of Higgus, but obviously, you didn't hear the warning."

"Zod?" Kal-El asked. "He's alive?"

The leader shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know. "This happened fifty-years ago."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jimmy sat at the dinner table with Terry on the opposite end-quietly eating dinner after a long arduous day at school. Everything smelled okay, but Terry didn't like too many spices in the food. He was older; and since he was a clone of Bruce Wayne, he thought he might be predisposed to heart disease. It worried him all the time, and he ordered a chest x-ray every time he went to the doctor's office just to be sure he wasn't suffering from a clogged artery.

Jimmy didn't want to say too much to his adoptive father about his feelings because Terry always tried to take the positive side-even if he didn't have a full understanding of the problem. Sometimes the kid wanted to vent, but Terry always came at him with some kind of antiquated solution. The long table didn't have anything on top of it like a fruit bowl or other types of decorations. It was bare. Terry didn't have a taste for the arts, and he didn't mind that. He once hired a decorator who straightened out Mister Wayne's picture that set above Jimmy's head as he ate his meal, but that was the only thing in the dining room with a fancy touch to it.

Terry sat with his meal, a bottle of Vodka, and a stack of notes from his latest court case. After a long day of work, Terry liked to finish off the night with a few shots of Vodka. Jimmy sat in his padded suit that didn't allow for any of his skin to see the light of day, and tried to eat his meal without saying a word, but Terry kept clearing his throat like he wanted to say something. As soon as Jimmy dug his fork into his food, Terry cleared his throat. The head portion of Jimmy's suit protruded outwardly, and it was actually hard to see his brown face at all. The only sound in the room for a short time were the eating utensils slamming against the plates, and then Terry cleared his throat. It messed up Jimmy's concentration. Jimmy looked up at him, and then back down at his food, and Terry cleared his throat a few more times.

Jimmy sometimes mentioned to Terry how much he hated his life, and how he longed to feel the touch of another human being. It killed him on the inside not to have intimate contact with the opposite sex like the other boys at school. He hated watching the couples walk through the hallways-holding hands and kissing without any cares in the world. It was painful to watch something that he could never have, so he kept his face in the books. Terry knew about his pain, but didn't have the means to solve it. He'd tell Jimmy that sex wasn't all that great, but he knew it was a lie. Terry's face told a different story than his mouth. Jimmy somewhat felt like the man with the midas touch; however, his touch didn't turn flesh to gold; it killed it. He often imagined what it was like to have another human being touch his face like they did in the movies, and then he started to cry a little. The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of Terry because he'd want to know if somebody was picking on him at school. Terry cleared his throat one more time, and Jimmy slammed his fists on the table.

"What?" Jimmy asked.

"Itchy throat," Terry replied, "Why are you so uptight?"

"Nothing. Just trying to eat in peace."

Jimmy didn't let the jokes about his suit get to him because he knew the reason behind the protective uniform. It wasn't for his safety, but their safety. He often had vivid dreams of not wearing the suit, having a girlfriend, and falling in love. When he awoke from his lucid dreams, he would cry.

Jimmy thought having an array of different suits in multiple colors would cement him some friends, but it never happened. The other students made an effort to stay clear of Jimmy because of an incident that happened in elementary school. He nearly killed his entire second grade class when he tore his glove on the playground. He didn't think the little tear would cause a significant problem, but it did. Everybody in his second grade class started getting sick, and four students went into a coma. He had a hard time meeting people, and in some ways, he was just too shy. Jimmy sat alone during lunch at school, and never talked to anybody-even when people asked why he wore the insulated suits.

Terry looked up at Jimmy, and asked, "How was school?" The large scar on his face grew more prominent through the years, and it told a story of its own. At first, he thought about getting the scar fixed, but it gave him a certain edge in the courtroom. The defense attorneys took him more serious with a war wound on his face.

"Fine," he said without looking up at Terry. He picked through his food with the fork, and ate it slowly. Terry liked stir fried vegetables, and the majority of the meals consisted of some kind of stir fry. Jimmy had pretty much grown up on Terry's cooking, and thought everybody ate vegetables all the time with very little seasoning, but that wasn't the truth. He didn't like the dinner conversation with Terry because he always had a positive attitude about life, but Jimmy needed something real. "The usual."

"You don't seem fine," Terry said in a bitter voice. "How can I help you when you act like this, Jimmy?"

"Like what, Terry?" He asked angrily. "At least you have friends."

"That's it," Terry shouted, "Have you even tried, Jimmy? You sit..."

The metal shield slid over Jimmy's face, and he stopped talking to Terry, walked out of the room, and out the front door. He could see through the shield without any problems, and he often used it when he was in a small, closed room with other people. The majority of his dangerous energies flowed through his actual body and hands; but in times of high stress, his face would throw out burst of deadly energies that would kill everybody in the room. The shield was another level of protection, a backup plan, but Jimmy used it to ignore Terry most of the time. When Jimmy closed his face shield, Terry threw his napkin to the ground, and shook his head.

"Grow up, Jimmy." He shook his head in disapproval of his son, and then took a gulp from the bottle of Vodka.

Terry owned a vast amount of property that stretched over twenty-five acres on the outskirts of Metro City. The property had rolling hills with plenty of exotic looking trees, and a long path that circled the entire property. On the far end of the compound, the path led into a wooded area flowing with vegetation. Jimmy was fourteen-years-old, and jumped far ahead of his peers. He was about to graduate from high school in a few months, and planned on attending College at the prestigious Metro City University for a degree in Genetics. He had to stay living with Terry because the facilities on the Metro City campus couldn't accommodate his special needs. Needless to say, his radioactive field that encompassed his body would kill everybody in the dormitory if he removed his suit without being in a protective room. He lamented to Terry about how much he hated living his life in the protective suit; he compared it to being a slave to medicines.

Every noise in Metro City entered into Jimmy's ear canal, and he hated listening to everybody's inane chatter. The majority of people talked about trivial things that didn't amount to much, and he had to learn how to filter through the nonsense. He stood in the middle of his special room, and listened to nothingness in order to try to block out the noises. Even though he did a good job at blocking out most of the nonsense, sometimes things got through. Sometimes he heard other people talking about him in a negative tone, but he learned not to take it personally.

He had a picture of Ginger Li Li on his wall, and a heart drawn next to her. He had a crush on the teenage rockstar, and wanted to meet her more than anything. She had a large fanbase, but Terry wouldn't allow him to attend one of her concerts because of the risk factors involved. All of her concerts sold out within the first ten minutes of the tickets going online; and with that kind of numbers, Jimmy would be sitting too close to other people, and it would create a precarious situation. It would not have ended well for whomever he touched-even with his insulated suit as the barrier.

Tuning out rogue noises was a technique that Terry taught him through the years, and it worked most of the time. Jimmy spent a lot of time meditating in his room before he went to sleep almost every night. He didn't pray. He didn't believe in God or anything like that, but he loved to meditate. Suddenly, he heard Terry staggering into the house, and quickly put on his suit, and ran to see what was happening. It was the BAT! It shocked Jimmy because he hadn't worn the uniform in a long time. Since Terry started practicing the law, he stopped his vigilante ways, and spent the majority of his time studying the law.

Terry lay on the kitchen floor in his bat uniform without his mask, and blood dribbled from his mouth. He reeked of Vodka. The scar over his right eye looked like something reopened part of it, and blood trickled down his face. He smelled like the Vodka oozed out of his skin naturally, and it caused Jimmy to scowl. It was the first time that Jimmy saw him battered so badly, and it scared him. Even though Terry and Jimmy argued about trivial things, he loved Terry. He was all Jimmy knew. Breathing hard, he could barely say a word, but he tried his best. He looked up at Jimmy, and said, "Call Jessica."

Jimmy tapped his right sleeve. On the cuff of his right sleeve, he had a panel of buttons that was nothing more than a special type of cell phone. It was a top-of-the-line technology that Terry had built into all of Jimmy's suits because regular cellphones were hard to store. After he pressed one of the buttons on the right sleeve of his uniform an image appeared in the middle of the room: "Jessica, Terry's in trouble." The light from his arm projected an image of Jessica in the middle of the kitchen, and she was a tall, dark skinned woman.

That was all Jimmy had to say in order for Jessica to come running. Jessica stood approximately six foot four inches, and was one of the prominent superheroes who wasn't part of the Justice Corp. Her superhero persona was Radiant Wasp, and she fought along side a superhero called Green Glow. The Bat, Radiant Wasp, and Green Glow rejected all offers by the Justice Corp to join their ranks. The corp only helped the nations who paid an exorbitant fee for services, and it caused a few heroes to go rogue. Peru failed to pay the corp for the second year, and now they're fighting torrential rains. The mudslides will happen soon, but the corp will not help them.

Jessica was a medical doctor that worked mainly in the emergency room at Metro Regional. The majority of supervillains was afraid of the Radiant Wasp because she had something called the Glove of Darkness (GOD glove) that she used in order to bring any person's fears to the surface. The glove had other powers that enabled her to jump into different dimensions. Her father used the glove in the past, and he was critically wounded in a battle with an evil Superman from an alternate universe. Jessica once told Terry that her father and the Lantern Corp accidentally destroyed an Earth in an alternate universe, and that Kryptonians could break through to our side with the right technology because not all Kryptons exploded in alternate universes. She said that her father and the Lanterns inadvertently destroyed the Earth in an attempt to kill a rogue Superman.

Terry lay on the ground, and it seemed that he wasn't breathing for a moment. Jimmy could hear his shallow breath, but it scared him. "Terry!" Jimmy exclaimed. Terry moaned a little bit, but Jimmy felt better knowing that he was still alert. He had sweat running off his pallid face, and Jimmy didn't think he would survive. He couldn't do anything to help his guardian because his energy field would kill Terry. Jimmy sat against the refrigerator watching Terry lay on the ground in pain, and he hated the fact that he couldn't lift a hand to help him. He had to keep the Bat a secret-even if it meant Terry dying. Terry's orders! He looked into Terry's chest, and felt a sigh of relief that the knife didn't hit anything major.

Radiant Wasp burst into the back door with her medical kit, and started treating him on the spot. She wore her red leather uniform, and had large wasp wings protruding out of her back. Her mask covered only her eyes, and she looked like she worked out. She was a tall, tenebrous woman almost thirty-seven-years old, but she didn't look older than twenty. Ripping Terry's uniform off his frail body, she injected him with some kind of pain killing medicine. In the middle of the kitchen, she sewed up his stab wound, and put stitches in him immediately. She picked him up, took him to his bedroom, and laid him on his bed.

"Will he be alright?" Jimmy asked with a concerned look on his face.

She looked at him, and said with a smile, "As long as you don't touch him." She smiled. "He'll be fine." She pushed Jimmy out of the room, and then said, "There are dark times ahead of us."

"What do you mean?" Jimmy asked.

Jessica smiled. "It's not important now. Just make sure Terry drinks plenty of water." She looked Jimmy in the eyes, and then said, "Don't let him near the Vodka … Okay?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Terry remained in bed for nearly two weeks, and Jessica checked on him two times a day until he was back up and running. She was adamant about him not drinking, and made sure all the alcohol was out of the house. She checked every time she came over to visit Terry to ensure he wasn't drinking. He didn't say anything to Jimmy about what happened on that fateful night, but some criminal got the best of him. Terry never explained his scars and scratches if Jimmy didn't ask; but when it came to a wound as severe as the one he received two weeks earlier, Jimmy had to know.

"What happened to you?" Jimmy asked as he walked with Terry on the trails near the mansion. Terry looked old, frail, and his skin color was whiter than usual. His unshaven face had quite a few long hairs on it, and his mustache made him look much older. Terry already had a few gray hairs, but for some reason, he seemed to have more than usual.

The path was narrow, well kept, and it ran through the thick, wooded area of his property. Terry walked slightly in front of Jimmy, and he noticed the hair in the back of his head was completely gray, but he didn't say anything about it. "You don't injure easily."

Terry laughed. "All those years I told you Smear was dead," he said in a brittle voice. He looked at Jimmy with a stoned face. "He's alive, back to his old ways too."

"From the dead?" Jimmy asked facetiously. He had a feeling his brother was still alive because he couldn't find Smear's obituary when he searched online. Even when he realized that Terry lied about his brother's death, Jimmy never confronted him about it. It wasn't important to him in the scheme of things. But Jimmy knew that Terry didn't want anything to do with Smear because he never mention his name, his given name. He never said his name out loud, but Jimmy knew the name of Terry's brother. It was Matt, Matt McGinnis.

"He's dead to me," Terry said angrily. He walked off the trail, and looked into the thick brush. "Tried to talk some sense into him." Shaking his head back and forth, he screamed in a loud voice. "Why?"

"What's wrong?" Jimmy asked. Terry's scream caught him off guard, and he panicked for a second.

"He stabbed me," Terry said, "You know the rest." He acted like all the steam left out of his body, and walked in a lethargic manner back to the mansion. "It's getting late, Jimmy. You have school tomorrow."

"Okay," he said with a stern look on his face. The entire incident with Smear didn't surprise Jimmy because he felt for years that he didn't truly kill his brother. It was nothing more than the case of Cain and Abel with Terry and his brother, and Terry's little brother played the role of Cain.

Smear was nothing more than a toxic dump. The government didn't enforce the laws against dumping toxic chemicals when it came to the wealthy businessmen. Everybody knew the deadly toxins led to thousands of cancer deaths, diabetes, and other diseases, including metamorphism. Smear's powers came from harmful toxins, and he knew how to inflict the maximum amount of damage on Metro City. He robbed banks for a living, and Terry got in the way of a robbery in progress. Instead of Terry discussing the issues he had about his little brother, he continued brooding, and attending to his wound.

Metro City High was a massive school that stretched across three city blocks, and Jimmy hated the place. Before school started each day, he sat on the far picnic table. The majority of time he read on his tablet computer, but a young woman caught his attention one day. He knew her from his advance math classes, but he never spoke to her. Her name was Dana Vincent. She seemed like a quiet girl, the kind of girl that wore spring dresses with little flowers all the time. She had shoulder length black hair that she wore without curling it. She gave Jimmy a kind of wave, but he turned around to see who was behind him.

"I'm waving at you, silly," she said with a grin.

"Oh..."

Jimmy didn't stick out too badly in the school because all of the students wore wild clothing, including students involved in splicing. To the majority of the kids, Jimmy was nothing more than a weird super nerd who never talked. He had on a sleek black uniform that kept a barrier between him and the other students; and it took approximately fifteen seconds before his dangerous energy field escaped the confines of the protective suit, and killed whatever outside source was touching him. He made a point every day never to ride in an elevator with another student. The risk was too great. When he came to the elevator with a group of other students, Veronica Lee held the elevator for him.

"You coming?" She asked with an impatient look on her face. Her thick curly hair was in her face, and she had to remove it out of the way repeatedly.

"I'll catch the next ride," Jimmy said with a half smile.

"Whatever!"

Jimmy could hear her talking negatively about him to the other riders on the elevator, but it didn't bother him too much. It probably would have upset him more if she didn't say anything at all about him. The majority of people talked behind his back, but they didn't know that he knew about it. He grew tough skin over the issue when he was still in grade school. The kids made fun of him because he didn't have a momma, and that broke his heart. He had to learn how to live with the fact the Jokers stole the woman that he called Momma.

Later on in the day, he ate lunch outside on the concrete table in front of the school. The school had several concrete picnic tables where all the students sat, but he stayed by himself on the farthest one from the building. As he read an article about the Justice Corp on his tablet computer, he heard a voice in his head. At first, he thought he simply imagined Smear talking to him, but then he realized it was Smear.

"I know you can hear me, Jimmy," the voice said softly. "I'm going to kill you and Terry, and take ownership of his wealth, and he doesn't have the power to stop me."

Jimmy hopped up from the picnic table, looked around at all the other students, and then ran to the back of the school. The silver face shield slid over his face, and then he took flight. It was nothing more than a streak of blackness that cut through the blue sky, and in less than a second, he stood in front of Terry outside of the Metro City courtroom.

"What the hell are you doing, Jimmy?" Terry said as he looked unsettled by Jimmy's sudden appearance. "If people see you using your abilities..."

"I know, but …"

"But nothing. You know better," Terry snapped.

A loud pop-somebody fired a rifle-caused Jimmy to hop in front of Terry, and the bullet bounced off of Jimmy's back. The large caliber round fell to the ground, and made a clunk sound. Jimmy picked it up, examined it, and then held it in the palm of his right hand.

"Let me see that?" Terry asked. Jimmy handed the round to Terry, and he shook his head in disbelief.

"It's Smear," Jimmy said. He searched the top of the buildings until he spotted Smear nearly five miles away with a high powered fifty caliber rifle. "He's got a rifle."

"Stop him," Terry said in a strong, commanding voice. "Don't kill him."

Jimmy hit Smear's rifle with his heat vision, and melted it into a pile of metal. The red beams shot across the sky, and melted the rifle without any effort. Smear dropped the wooden portion of the rifle on the ground, and screamed at the top of his lunges. Angered, Jimmy hit Smear's right index finger with his heat vision, and removed it from his body completely.

"What was that?" Terry asked.

"I destroyed his weapon," Jimmy snapped.

"What else?"

"Removed his right index finger," he said with a serious look on his face.

"But you didn't kill him?"

"No."

"Good. He'll rejuvenate by morning," Terry said in a soft voice.

"He wants us dead," Jimmy snapped, "You're protecting him."

"You're so narrow minded, JImmy." Terry folded his arms, and then walked behind one of the large columns on the courthouse, and then said, "Somebody in the corp tipped off Smear about your powers. That's why I don't want him dead."

"Who would do that?" Jimmy asked.

"Don't know, but…" Terry looked around to make sure they were alone. "They're exploiting your weaknesses."

Jimmy sat down on the ground for a moment with a frown on his face. "Why do they hate me?"

"'Cause you're designed for one purpose, son." Terry looked up in the sky, and then back down at Jimmy.

"But it's my choice," Jimmy said, "Killing Superman is the last thing from my mind."

"They don't know that," Terry said, "They think it's like a switch..."

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders, and lamented, "I just want to be human, Terry. Nothing more."

The majority of people in Metro City was highly out of shape, and portly bellies were everywhere. It was the way of the world. Almost every teacher had an enormous waistline, and nobody seemed to mind one bit. Jimmy walked into his first period class on the next day, and he notice he had a substitute teacher for his advance math class. He wasn't the average looking teacher, but a man with plenty of muscles underneath his black suit. When Jimmy took his seat in the back of the classroom, he noticed the teacher glowering at him, but simply thought his sleek suit caught the new instructor off guard. He didn't know all of the members of the Justice Corp, but he expected the instructor might be a member. Jimmy looked him up and down, and then noticed the radio receiver in the instructor's left ear. The instructor had a nameplate that read Mister Lawson.

After about fifteen minutes into the class, Jimmy walked out of the classroom, and into the boy's bathroom down the hall. The instructor came in after him, and stood by the door.

"So, you know I'm not a real teacher?' Mister Lawson asked with an insidious grin.

"Why are you here?" Jimmy asked. He wasn't facing Mister Lawson, but could telegraph the man's every move.

Mister Lawson pulled out a green rock, and Jimmy turned around to see it. "This'll kill you."

Jimmy walked swiftly over to Mister Lawson, grabbed the rock, and crushed it in his hands. "Unlike Superman, I've grown immune to kryptonite." He crumbled up the rock, and allowed the pieces to fall onto the floor. "So, you're from the Justice Corp?"

Mister Lawson laughed. "We can't have an abomination like you mucking up things, Jimmy. Superman sends his regards."

Staring at the ground, Jimmy pulled off his right glove, and allowed his hand to soak in the fresh, bathroom air. It was the first time he took his hand out of the glove when he wasn't in his protective room. He tried to abstain from getting angry because he needed to control his energy field, and not let his dangerous aura escape the confines of the bathroom. Mister Lawson's eyes turned blood red, and he fell to his knees-crying. Holding his chest, he squinted his eyes as if pain was shooting through his body. It was possible that he didn't realize he was dying, but he sounded like a little baby. He fought with the air, and tried his best to breathe, but he couldn't. He grabbed his hair, and all the hairs on his head fell out onto the floor. He tried to scream, but blood shot out of his mouth onto the ground in a big puddle. Jimmy quickly put his glove back on his hand, and tucked it into his suit. He realized he had made a mistake in exposing the man to his dangerous aura, but it was too late. Mister Lawson fell to the ground in a puddle of blood-dead. He stood over the body, and didn't say a word, but knew immediately that he needed to hide it. The thought of Terry raced through his mind, and if Terry found out about him killing a man, he'd have words.

Jimmy opened up the panels on the ceiling, and stuck Mister Lawson in the ceiling and quickly cleaned up the mess. It didn't take him long to clean up the blood because he was able to move faster than any human on the planet. He spent the rest of the day thinking about what to do with the body, but he didn't have any ideas. When school let out for the day, he spent an hour after everybody left walking around the campus. He saw a small conveyance sitting in the parking-lot with a Justice Corp license plate, and he knew at some point the corp would come for him. He moved swiftly through the hallways, retrieved the body from the bathroom, and stuck it into the car. He did everything within a few seconds, and then he sat in the driver's seat of Mister Lawson's car. He probably sat in the driver's seat of the car for twenty minutes before he started it with the keys he retrieved from Mister Lawson's left pocket. He took off down the street, and then flipped a lever on the center console, and the car flew into the sky. The only reason he knew about flying was because Terry let him fly in private all the time. He took the ship all the way up into space, and traveled over to the Watch Tower. A voice came over the speaker.

"Welcome, Ace," the voice said, "The tower will guide you into the bay."

As soon as the car entered into the large docking bay, Jimmy hopped out of the vehicle, and hid underneath the stairs that led up to the main portion of the space station. Nearly thirty cars set in the bay, and they were all fancy too. None of the Justice Corp members had ordinary conveyances. They probably were some of the richest people on the planet. The car sat quietly in the docking bay for about ten minutes; and then a woman with dark hair walked over to the vehicle. She had on a black uniform that had JC written in the upper left hand corner. When she tapped the button to open the door, she screamed.

"Ace is dead!" She yelled throughout the entire bay. She ran over to the wall, and pressed an alarm that brought everybody on the ship into the bay-even Superman. He looked over the body, and ordered several of the members to remove it from the car. Jimmy watched everything from a small compartment underneath the stairs, and couldn't believe he was around the greatest heroes in history.

"The boy did this," Superman said in a cold, harsh voice, "He's dangerous, a threat."

Two of the Justice Corp members walked with Ace's body across the floor, and the rest of them went into the main portion of the space station. Jimmy left out of his hiding spot, and tried to figure out how he would leave the space station undetected. It was an air tight room, but he needed to find a way out of the ship undetected, and he knew it wasn't going to be easy. When he bumped into one of the cars, an alarm sounded, and warned the entire station that an intruder was on board the space station. He tried to escape back to his compartment underneath the stairs, but it was too late. Superman walked into the room with a powerful shoulder fire laser rifle.

"I knew you were on board," Superman said with a grimace. "We detected you in the ship, idiot."

"Just let me go," Jimmy said with a quiver in his voice.

Suddenly, Superman shot Jimmy with the sonic ray, and he fell to the ground in pain. The beam felt like a thousand tiny needles stabbing at his skin, and then his body adapted to the pain. The scientist who created him designed him to adapt to any amount of pain. He stood to his feet, and his protective suit incinerated around his body. The sonic ray turned his suit into tatters, and the head portion fell to the ground. He looked at his gloveless hands, and knew everybody in the station would die a horrible death. He tried to hold back his anger, but it was too late. The harmful radiation from his body started permeating throughout the entire ship, and Superman dropped the laser to the ground. He wiped his nose, and it had blood on it. The ship's computer told everybody to exit the space station immediately, and several escape pods ejected from the ship. Superman burst through the escape hatch, and fell haphazardly to the planet.

Jimmy walked up to the main portion of the space station, and over one hundred junior members of the corp lay dead in the main room. The ship didn't have any protective rooms that would protect the members from Jimmy's radioactive aura. Blood draped the floor, and boils covered the majority of bodies in the room. They looked like victims of some kind of plague, and Jimmy cried a little. He could hear several members in the control room calling for help, but he knew they were already dead. Everybody in the control room struggled to breath, but he knew they would die.

"Doctor Hawkins, we need your help?" a weak, female voice said.

"You're at the end of your days, child," Doctor Hawkins said on the monitor. "You died valiantly."

Jimmy looked down at the dead bodies in the main bay, and didn't have the heart to see the damage in the control room. He grabbed a phone off one of the dead bodies, and called Terry.

"Terry."

"What's going on?" Terry asked.

"Superman," Jimmy said, "He tried to kill me."

"What happen?" Terry asked in a frantic manner.

"They're dead," Jimmy said, "The junior members are all dead."

"What? Are you wearing your suit?"

"Superman tore it," he said, "But he escaped to the planet."

"Where are you?"

"Watchtower," Jimmy said. He paused for a moment, and said, "I need a protective suit."

"Sheesh, Jimmy," Terry said, "The Justice Corp is on the highest alert right now."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I'll leave the uniform on the balcony," Terry said, "Put it on, and then hide."

Jimmy sat underneath a large willow tree on the edge of Terry's property in his white uniform that he usually wore for special occasions. It was one of the extra padded uniforms in case Jimmy's radioactivity went awry while he sat in a group of people. He didn't have any clue what the Justice Corp planned on doing to him, but Terry went to talk with the Justice Corp in order to make peace. Terry had good communication skills, and often used them when talking with the Justice Corp. Unfortunately, he had left over three hours earlier, and hadn't answered his cell phone, so Jimmy felt nervous about the whole situation. Terry told him not to leave the property, but he became concerned after three hours of not hearing from him.

The corp had several agencies throughout the world, and two Justice Corp agencies were in Metro City. Regardless, Terry told him not to leave the property until he returned, but not knowing his whereabouts worried him. With his super ears, he listened to every conversation in the city in hopes that he'd hear Terry's voice, but nothing came of it. He flew upwards in a tardigrade motion over the compound in the hopes he could pick up a clue. By the time he flew the length of the compound, he heard Terry's name mentioned, and he flew at near light speeds to its location. He landed in front of the Justice Corp building on the east side of town. Several of the Justice Corp members stood in front of the agency in their costumes when Jimmy walked up to them. The majority of the members were much taller than the fourteen-year-old kid, but they had a look of fear on their faces when they saw him.

"I'm looking for the Bat," Jimmy said in a soft, somewhat childish voice. He approached the main entrance of the building, and none of the members tried to stop him. When he walked inside, he could hear Terry's voice coming from one of the back rooms, and then he heard Superman ask Terry to turn Jimmy over to the corp.

"You can kill me, Clark," Terry said in a harsh manner. "You attacked him. I'll never hand him over to you."

"I was just testing his mettle," Superman said in a gruff manner. "He went too far."

"No. You went too far," Terry replied, "You tore his suit. You attacked him. You're responsible for the deaths."

"Get out, traitor," Superman snapped, "Be warned. Open season on you and the boy."

Jimmy backed quietly out of the building, and flew home without Terry detecting his presences, and he had a lot on his mind. How far would Superman go in order to revenge his comrades? But then he stopped thinking about the revenge portion of his argument because the Justice Corp planned on killing him regardless of his earlier actions on the Watchtower. In fact, Superman more likely than not planned on building a case against Jimmy so he could throw the weight of the Justice Corp down on him and Terry. The Batman flew over Jimmy's head, and landed in the middle of the estate, and pulled off his mask when he entered into the house. Jimmy followed behind him, and Terry went straight for the bottle of Vodka. He poured himself a small drink, and then pointed at Jimmy.

"Thought I told you to stay on the grounds?" He said in a bitter voice. "Don't think I didn't see you at the JC building."

"You saw me …," Jimmy sat in a nice, cushioned chair that stood in the middle of the room. "Superman started this."

"I know. I know." Terry took another swig of the Vodka, and then set it back on the shelf. "Listen, they don't know your secret."

"That's true," Jimmy said with a smirk. "There isn't any black Kryptonite left."

Terry raised his glass to Jimmy, but when he turned to set the glass on the shelf, he noticed a small chip located on the outside of Terry's suit. It was directly under his right arm. "What's that?" Jimmy asked.

"What's what?" Terry asked.

Jimmy walked over to Terry, and had him raise his right arm. He pointed to the miniature device, and Terry pulled it off.

"Dammit!" Terry said as he squashed the receiver between his right thumb and right index finger. "They know all they need to know now."

Walking back over to the chair, Jimmy sat down in the chair, and said, "It's not all bad."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Terry asked.

"I've always prayed for a quick death."

Terry snarled. "I promised your mother that I'll take care of you." Terry grabbed the bottle of Vodka, and drank it all down. "I won't fail."

Two weeks moved past rather fast with absolutely no word from the Justice Corp, and Jimmy didn't mind the quietness. It was warm, spring warm, and he enjoyed the nice day in the month of March. The smell of the spring made Jimmy happy, and he appreciated the beauty of the old Wayne Manner. Vegetation grew in a wild and unfettered way up the side of the house, and Terry didn't hire anybody to trim the weeds. The water fountain gave the manner a scenic view that Jimmy loved, and he walked around the trail enjoying all the little creatures. Jimmy loved living on the fringes of the city because he didn't have a vast amount of hover cars roaming through the area. He sat on the park bench on the far side of the estate, and fed the ducks as they walked by. At any given time, at least thirty ducks wobbled around the trail eating whatever they could find.

A strong wind blew past Jimmy's head, and then he noticed the trees swaying in the wind. He looked up in the sky, but didn't notice anything ominous with the clouds. He stood up for a moment when the ground rumbled beneath his feet, and then several gigantic robots landed in front of him. The machines landed hard on the ground, and kicked up nearly a ton of dirt, and it caused Jimmy to fly into the air. He landed back on the ground in a defensive manner, and was ready to fight the two, threatening robots. One of the mechanical oddities took a swing at him but missed, and he hit the silver monstrosity in its slick chin. The robot stumbled backwards, and then he hit it two more times. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the whereabouts of the second robot, and it smashed the young kid into the ground. The strike to the top of Jimmy's head caused the young warrior to lose consciousness for a moment; and then when he awoke, one of the machines had him clinched in its metal fist. He used his heat vision in order to cut the machine into two pieces, and then struck the other robot in the legs with his heat vision-cutting it off at the knees. After about fifteen minutes of rustling with the machines, the metal titans lay in the yard in a pile of agitated metal still trying to carry out an already lost battle.

Terry-after spending a full day at work-came home to a yard full of torn metal, and checked on Jimmy's condition. The lawn looked like a war took place because the battle uprooted large chunks of grass and broke several of the yard ornaments.

"Are you okay?" Terry asked.

"Fine," Jimmy said, "Didn't even tear my suit."

Terry smiled. "Glad to see you're in a good mood about this."

Jimmy walked out into the front yard, looked up into the sky, and then said, "I'm going back to the Watchtower."

"And do what?" Terry asked.

"Finish what Superman started," he said in a bitter tone.

"You're not invincible, son," Terry said, "They have weapons."

"But I'm the ultimate weapon," Jimmy said, "Designed for one reason."

"You're letting your anger get the better of you," Terry said.

Jimmy walked over to the pile of robotic junk in the front yard, and shrugged his shoulders. Kicking some of the metal, he looked back at Terry with a scowl. "Is this my life?" He picked up the head of one of the robots, and screamed at it. He had high hopes that the Watchtower could hear his threats. "I'm coming for you, Superman."

"Jimmy!" Terry screamed.

The boy took off into the air so fast that all Terry could see was a streak of light. He flew in the direction of the Watchtower as it floated above the planet; and when he flew into the outer regions of space, he stood in front of the Watchtower ready for battle. The flashing lights of the Watchtower caused the young warrior to tense up a bit, but he was ready for a massive fight. The scientist of Cadmus created him to battle Superman, and now that day had come. Superman needed to pay for his indiscretions against the boy, and Jimmy wanted to make him bleed. He ripped off the top portion of his protective suit, and prepared for battle. The radiation emanating from his body caused an electrical field of death for a twenty-five mile radius. The space station went on alert, and warned the residents to leave immediately because of the abundance of radiation creeping towards it. He could see movement on the inside of the space station, and Superman at the controls of the fortified machine. Several ships exited the dock, and flew towards the planet while a team of robots flew towards Jimmy's position. One ship flew towards Jimmy, and he could see the dead occupants in the window-victims of the radiation coming from him. When he took off to meet with the robots, a black Kryptonite ray hit his radioactive field, and caused a massive explosion that tore a hole in the dimension. The reaction of the two forces meeting threw Jimmy across the dark void, and he ended up unconscious on the other side of the moon.

Meanwhile, the Watchtower disintegrated around Superman, and many of the occupants on the ship died when it crumbled around him. The blast-felt all over the planet-was much more powerful than any nuclear bomb, and it opened a hole in the dimension. Superman floated in the middle of the debris unconscious for about fifteen minutes. When he awoke to the destroyed space station, he shook his head in disbelief. A piece of flesh floated by his face, and he grimaced at it. He felt another vibration, and then noticed a massive ship prying its way into his dimension.


	5. Chapter 5

Book of Gamma

Chapter 5

The Kryptonians-a lost race-spent the last ten years trying to locate a livable planet that orbited around a yellow star. Their emaciated faces barely demonstrated in signs of life as they gazed helplessly at the overhead viewer. The trek through space was long, and they endured death, starvation, and the loss of morality when they resorted to eating the dead members of their crew. Honorable men and women sat down to eat their brothers and sisters in order to survive the journey through space. Kal-El looked down at his plate of food, and said a few words under his breath. It pained him to eat members of his crew, but he knew it was the only solution to combat their starvation. He chewed in a slow, methodical motion, and kept his face buried in his plate when he ate. He didn't want the other members of his crew to know that he started enjoying the taste of Kryptonian flesh.

The space debris had turned the ship into a tattered vessel barely able to make the jump to lightspeed, and the crew grew restless. None of them had bathe in years because the water on the ship had to be used for drinking. The days were long and cumbersome because everybody had to share in keeping the vessel afloat. Some of the ship's parts broke off the vessel as it leaped into warp speed, and the crew did everything in their powers to keep it moving. Tired, the majority of the crew who survived wanted to give up, and die. Nearly three thousand Kryptonians existed on the large ship, but they started with approximately four thousand two hundred souls. Everything on the ship had an antiquated look to it, and Kal-El's command chair didn't have any cushion left on it. The clothes they wore were in tatters, and they didn't have any legitimate food to eat except for the dead. Everybody on board the ship looked like skeletons. The morale on board the battleship died when Krypton did, and now they roamed throughout the universe looking for a livable planet. They came into a galaxy with a yellow sun, but stood in front of a dead planet, a planet that had a crack down the middle of it. Tons of debris floated between the two large rocks, and Kal-El immediately knew it was Earth. It was the planet his father told him about in many of his bedtime stories. It was two large pieces of debris with tons of garbage orbiting the lifeless rocks. It looked like the planet had died years earlier, and he didn't see anything but space garbage in front of him.

"This was the Earth my father told me about," Kal-El said. His voice sounded almost hopeless, and he shrugged his shoulders in a disconcerted manner. "A great war must have destroyed…"

Suddenly a gap in the dimension opened. Kal-El walked over to the window, and didn't know what to make of the rip in the universe. He could see a gigantic blue planet through the tear in the universe; so, he ordered the pilot to guide the ship into the opening in order to see what was on the other side. The ship eased into the cavity almost automatically, and Kal-El stood watching wide eyed and excited. When they went through the wedge in the universe, they saw the debris of the Watchtower in front of them and a shiny Earth with an abundance of life.

Kal-El clapped his hands, and said in a deep throaty voice, "We're home."

Earth was the second planet with life they had found in ten years, and this time the Kryptonians needed it. They didn't have the means to travel any farther than the blue ball that floated in front of them. Kal-El had his fist clenched in anticipation of what to expect of the new planet, and he was eager to see it up close.

The entire crew looked out the window in order to take in the scenic view of the blue planet. Thousands of satellites orbited the Earth, and Kal-El made a quip about the archaic technology. The oceans automatically caused the crew to cheer up a bit. A man wearing a black uniform with a long, grayish black beard stood in front of them. He looked directly at Kal-El through the window on the side of ship. Kal-El walked over to the window, and said, "This cannot be."

"It's you, sir," Kara said. She was in a state of shock when she saw the other Kal-El floating outside of the ship. "Do you think there's a me on this planet?"

"Possible," Kal-El said with a grin. "I want to meet this man."

Kal-El-amazed by the other Kal-El-flew out into space to greet his other half; and when Superman saw him, he became defensive. Worn by the events with Jimmy, Superman's shirt had holes in it from the flying debris of the crumbled space station. Kal-El tried to shake Superman's hand, but he simply looked at it.

"What are you doing here?" Superman asked in a bitter manner. With his arms folded, he gave Kal-El an uppity look, the kind of look that the wealthy give to the poor. He looked at Kal-El face to face.

"We mean you no harm," Kal-El said with a smile.

"Then you should leave this dimension," Superman said with a grimace. "Go back to your dimension."

"We cannot," Kal-El snapped, "We've come to setup a new Krypton. Here."

"And do what with the humans?" Superman asked.

"Enslave them," he said with cruelty in his voice. "They're a weak race."

"That's the reason you should've never left Krypton," Superman screamed, "You've made plans to interfere with the growth of these people."

Kal-El laughed. "You sound like the Guardians."

"If your Jor-El would have put you in the vessel…"

"Then I'd be a race-hating coward like you."

Kal-El waved his hand, and nearly five hundred Kryptonians left out of the ship wearing their exoskeleton suits. They all stood behind Kal-El, and looked like they were prepared to fight. Superman unfolded his arms, and allowed the Kryptonians passage to the planet. Superman didn't have the power to take on five hundred Kryptonians, and he sensed more existed on the ship. When Kal-El landed in Metro City, he couldn't believe the abundance of water, vegetation, and people on the planet. When all the Kryptonians landed in the middle of the city, a car ran into Kara. It crumpled up, and the occupant inside the vehicle died on impact.

"They're so fragile," she said as she looked at the man bleeding in the car. She ripped open the door, and pulled the man out of it, and looked at him for a moment. She dropped him to the ground as if he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

Several street vendors stood around with their food carts, and Kal-El took in a big whiff of hot dogs. He walked over to a chubby man wearing a hot dog cap, and said, "What's this I smell?"

"Hot dogs, sir," the man said. His stomach protruded over his belt buckle, and Kal-El couldn't believe how fat he was.

"Give me one," Kal-El said with a stern look on his face.

The man quickly made the hot dog, and handed it to Kal-El. He ate the hotdog as fast as possible, and then gave his approval to his followers. "That's not free, you know?"

Kal-El looked at the man with a scowl on his face, and then grabbed the man by his neck. The man struggled to breath, and then he threw him to the ground-hard. He broked the man's back, and couldn't stand hearing him scream. Kara stepped on his neck, and the man died instantly.

"You don't have to kill them," Superman said.

"On the contrary," Kal-El said with a grimace. "We've come here to rule."

Meanwhile…

Terry tried to contact Jimmy with his communicator, but couldn't get an answer. He sat in the living room with a glass of Vodka, and repeatedly tried to call his son. He felt the Earth tremble, but he thought it was a mere Earthquake. He flipped on the big screen television, and it slid out of the ceiling, and covered half the wall in the living room. Every channel talked about the explosion in space, and Terry automatically knew it was Jimmy. He looked down at the floor because he was having some kind of lamentable moment about his son.

Suddenly, an urgent warning came across the television about the Kryptonian invasion. Terry stood up from his drunken state, and realized that Jessica's prescients about the invasion of Kryptonians taking over the planet was true. She had said on several occasions that not all planes of existence was equal, and that sometimes people escaped into other dimensions. The news gave a bleak assessment of the situation, and said that the Kryptonians had already seized Washington. The newscaster screamed, "Olympus has fallen!"

A loud knock on the door startled Terry as he watched the dreadful news; and when he answered the door, it was Radiant Wasp. She had a disconcerted look about her, and paced back and forth in the living room.

"What's going on?" Terry asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Haven't you seen the news?" Jessica asked. "It's a Kryptonian invasion."

"How many?" Terry asked in a brittle voice. He knew it would be a hopeless fight against one Kryptonian let alone a thousand.

"Possibly two thousand," she said, "Maybe more." She looked out the living room window, and said, "The boy is our only hope."

Terry shook his head in disagreement, and took a sip of his Vodka. After wiping the wetness from his lips, he said, "Jimmy might be dead." He cried a little, but tried to hold his composure.

"What?" She asked.

"That explosion in space. That was Jimmy," Terry said, "I fear the JC hit him with a black kryptonite ray."

Jessica paused for a second, and then said, "Which caused a tear in the universe."

Terry sat on the sofa in front of the television, and an image of Kal-El appeared on the screen. His constitution looked differently than that of Superman's because he looked much skinnier and unhealthy. His collarbones protruded through his shirt in a manner that looked disturbing. The emaciated look of Kal-El caused an unsettling feeling in Terry's stomach, and he had to look away from the television several times as the Kryptonian spoke. Immediately, he told the people of Earth not to resist his authority or the consequences would be grave. In addition, he said that if the death of the President of the United States had galvanized rogue elements of society into a fruitless action, he would personally behead a thousand people a day.

Jessica turned off the television, and threw the remote on the couch next to Terry. "We have to do something."

Terry smirked for a second. He walked over to the window, and then said, "Our weapons wouldn't do anything."

Jessica put her right arm in the air, and the GOD glove appeared on her hand. "This can do it."

Sitting back down on the couch, Terry ran his hands through his hair, and said, "There's thousands of them, Jessica."

"Sitting back and becoming slaves isn't an option, Terry."

"Without Jimmy…"

Jessica hugged Terry, and said, "We'll think of something."

The Justice Corp sent out a powerful distress call to the Green Lantern Corp, and nearly six thousand Lanterns met the remaining Kryptonians in space with a powerful Kai-Ro leading the crew. He stood in front of the dilapidated ship with his baldhead, skintight green suit, and wearing a very powerful Lantern ring. He had a legion of Lanterns behind him, and charged for battle. The ship orbited the planet in a slow, methodical manner while Kai-Ro watched every movement coming from the vessel with close attention.

Kai-Ro fired at the Kryptonian ship, and tore it into two, large pieces. He grabbed the front piece of the vessel with a gigantic green hand that the ring formed, and tossed it into deep space. It traveled nearly a thousand miles before the occupants flew out of it. The remaining residents on the other half of the ship flew towards the Lanterns, and attacked them with extreme prejudice. Thousands of green, deadly lights flew across the space, and caused Earth shaking booms. The Lanterns had never fought against a pack of angry Kryptonians, and didn't quite know what to expect. As soon as they hit a Kryptonian with a powerful burst of energy, they recovered almost immediately. The starved aliens fought with anger and rage and a willingness to kill the Lanterns by any means necessary. It took all of the Lanterns' strength in order to subdue just one of the Kryptonians, but there were too many of them. Any victories the Lantern Corp had in the skirmish was a pyrrhic victory because they received an abundance of casualties. Several Lanterns floated helplessly into the vast region of the darkness while a few Kryptonians died in the battle too. Kai-Ro unleashed a barrage of powerful punches on one of the Kryptonians, and the massive blows caused the alien's death. It took everything Kai-Ro had in order to win that one small victory, but it nearly drained all the power out of his ring. It didn't take long for the massive battle to cause the Lanterns to retreat back to Oa. The battle with the Kryptonians drained their rings, and they didn't have much fight left in them. Kai-Ro received a gash above his right eye that bled profusely, but he didn't retreat back to Oa. Earth was his home.

Kai-Ro flew to Terry's residence, and met up with Terry and Jessica at the old Wayne manner. He knew exactly who they were because they had worked together on several occasions. When Kai-Ro showed up bleeding at Terry's house, Jessica treated his wound. He sat on the floor, and discussed what to do about the Kryptonians, but they didn't have a clue. Superman had removed all known deposits of kryptonite off the planet, and they didn't have an indication on how to defeat the aliens.

"The Guardians will deem Earth a loss," Kai-Ro said in a soft voice. "Blue kryptonite is the key."

Terry walked over to the television, and turned it back on for a second. It showed an image of Kal-El looking over the bodies of several dead Kryptonians on the screen. The commentators reiterated some of the words that Kal-El had said earlier. "The Guardians will pay with their lives."

Kai-Ro went into a meditative state for a minute, and looked over at Terry. "John Stewart is on his way."

"What will he do?" Terry asked.

"Form an offensive," Kai-Ro said in a weak voice. He fell over on his side, and passed out on the ground.

Jessica ran over to him, and felt his forehead. She looked over at Terry, and said, "We have to get him to the hospital."

When Kai-Ro arrived at the hospital, people had flooded the emergency room with thousands of sick and wounded people. Some groups of people tried to go up against the Kryptonians, and many of them died. The news reported nearly thirty thousand people murdered at the evil hands of the Kryptonians in Metro City. Kai-Ro lay on the floor of the emergency room, and Jessica treated him the best she could. She hooked him up to an IV and some powerful antibiotics in order to fight off the infection. Terry and Jessica pushed Kai-Ro into a side room, and he mustered up enough strength to change into civilian clothes. The Kryptonians put out a warning that all Green Lanterns would be murdered on sight for killing several Kryptonians.

An Asian woman walked into the hospital wearing a green uniform with the letters "GG" on the front of it. Her slender frame made her look almost like a model. Jessica looked up at her, and said, "Green Glow, what's the word?"

"Death, RW. The word of the day is death." She placed her hand on Kai-Ro's shoulder, and said, "Static took four members of the Justice Corp underground." She looked at Kai-Ro. "You're injured in a bad way, Lantern."

"We all better hide," Jessica said in a soft voice. "Can you heal him, GG?"

She placed both hands on Kai-Ro's shoulders, and went into a deep concentration. Suddenly, a green glow covered her entire body, and engulfed Kai-Ro's body. His wound healed immediately, and he stood to his feet.

"Thank you, Green Glow," he said in his soft voice.

After a few weeks of occupation, the Kryptonians set up a branding station that branded human beings as slaves for all eternity. The aliens erected branding stations all over the planet, and they expected every human branded within a year. Kal-El threatened to kill humans without the brand within a year's time.

The majority of humans walked through life with a dejected look about them. There was a lot of self-hatred and loathing because of the condition of the planet, and the Kryptonians had the power to kill anybody they wanted without consequences. The Justice Corp didn't have the strength or the numbers to stand up to the Kryptonians, and Superman didn't seem to care at all. Kal-El enacted a new law in the land that pretty much stated he was now the ruler over mankind. Rumor reverberated through the streets that Superman didn't see a need to fight the Kryptonians because his efforts wouldn't amount to much. There was no way that he could fight nearly three thousand Kryptonians by himself, and he wasn't going to try.

It took almost two months for John Stewart to return to Earth, and he wasn't happy with Superman's actions. John-a military man-tried to convince Superman of waging war against his counterpart, but Superman wouldn't budge. And since the Kryptonians killed hundreds of Lanterns in a bloody battle, he couldn't get the Guardians onboard with a strike against the alien invaders.

Terry dawned his batman uniform, and met up with John Stewart in the old bat cave. He pulled the thick tarp that lay over the bat computer, and revved up the powerful computer equipment. It took up the majority of the back wall, and had several small computer screens with one large computer screen in the middle. When he turned on the expensive equipment, a blue light lit up the entire room.

"What's with that old thing?" John asked with a look of confusion on his face.

"It's probably one of the powerfulest computers on the planet," Batman said, "It was built with longevity in mind." Terry looked over at John Stewart, and asked, "What's the word on Jimmy?"

"Nothing," he said, "Either the black kryptonite destroyed him or he's floating helplessly in space. Not a trace of him."


End file.
